Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Keeping Warm

One of the downfalls of an old home is when you have a lack of insulation in the walls.  Homes built in 1890 didn't have insulation as we know it today.  My Beloved's and my bedroom is one of the original rooms of our homestead home.  Like typical homes of that period, there is no insulation to help keep the winter cold out.  Nothing can be more "chilling" than to climb into bed in an unheated, uninsulated room and lay between two icy cold bed sheets!  Yes, we have other blankets in the bed, but the top & fitted sheets are still very cold.  Here is the solution that we have been using with great results.

The first step was to remove the top sheet from the bed.  We left the bottom fitted sheet on the bed, but covered it with a large fuzzy acrylic blanket/throw that we have.  This acrylic blanket/throw is what we sleep on.  Next, we took a second fuzzy acrylic blanket/throw and used that in place of the top sheet.  Last came another heavy acrylic blanket, comforter, and quilt.  Yes, it is alot of layers, but it worked!  The first night we did this, we had temperatures reaching the freezing point.  Typically, the bedroom was very cold but instead of sleeping in a cold bed, we were kept very toasty warm!

If you are having problems with cold sheets when you go to bed on a cold night, try sleeping between 2 layers of acrylic fuzzy blankets.  It may be much warmer for oyu and save on the extra heating costs.

Additional note:  if you come across old acrylic blankets like the fuzzy type I described using, consider using them inside your quilts as a batting.  The blankets are very warm and would make a nice, easy to launder batting.

Family Update

First, I want to thank everyone for the prayers and well wishes for the children.  They are doing very well and are recovered.

Last weekend, we got a new addition to the homestead.  We have a 3 month old female pup.  She has the black and brown markings of a rottweiler, but is a Sharpei/Blue Heeler mix.  One grandparent had a very small percentage of rottweiler, which is how she got the coloring.  The pup's parents however were only about 30-35 pounds in weight, so she will be much smaller than a rottweiler.  We had named her Gracie, which was close to the name the previous owners had given her & also easy for Abbie to say.   Well, Abbie has renamed the pup and it actually responds to the name Abbie gave her.  How she came up with the name is pretty cute. 

Joe bought a little beginning reader level book to read to Abbie called, "Hot Dog".  The story is about a little dog that is hot and gets itself into all types of mischief trying to cool off.  Well, this story has become one of Abbie's favorites.  She has now started calling the puppy, "Hot Dog".  Poor puppy answers to it and so the name will likely stick.  LOL

Over the past week. I managed to get 2 shawls crocheted to sell.  Both are made using a very soft & cuddly acrylic/polyester blend yarn.  One is done in earth tones of tan and other colors that remind me of a desert.  The other is in shades of blue, cream, and a little bit of a soft rose shade.  Both shawls are triangular and about 70 inches across at the top and 36 inches from the top to the tip of the point that the bottom.  I am so happy to get two done so quickly.  We have pictures of them on our website if anyone is interested in seeing them.

Sick Little Ones

Last Saturday, I had to take both of the kids to the Emergency Room.  The kids had been exposed to Bollous Impetigo, which is a contagious staph infection that causes blisters that are very fragile and break open easily & spread on their bodies.  The kids had been exposed as a community event when our 2 yr old daughter played with another child who was sick with this staph infection. 

This lays heavy on my heart to post a gentle suggestion.  With the cold & flu season upon us, PLEASE if you or your little ones are sick do not take them to places where the illness can be spread.  I am thinking about the elderly who were at this community event.  If they were exposed to this staph infection it would be very harmful to them!  What about people who are going through chemo treatments or otherwise have weakened immune systems?  A simple common cold could be very harsh to their health! 

Often, I have seen people take very sick kids to church, school, daycare, or other places where they spread the illnesses.  Yes, there are times when it is inconvenient to keep the little ones home.  It is not always easy - especially for single parents - to take a day from work to care for a sick child.  That is when you need a back-up plan set up ahead of time.  Find someone who is willing to watch your child in the times when they are sick.  Don't assume that just because you have plans for the day that it is okay to allow your sick child to expose others' children with their illness!  Besides the obvious health concerns, think about the financial hardships you can cause to others!  Not everyone has the ability to buy health insurance or the extra money for medications & doctor bills.  Thank heavens, our kids are fully insured!  My husband is insured through his job, but I have no insurance as we cannot afford it.  If I were to get this infection from treating my kids, it would cause a major hardship on us financially. 

I think about the number of kids today with asthma and other health issues.  Simple colds that are easy for otherwise healthy kids to tolerate can cause congestion in an asthmatic child that brings on a severe asthma attack.  Please, if your children are sick, take precautions.

Time for a decision

I have been blogging at a couple of locations, here and at blogger.  I have been getting a lot of traffic at both locations, but there is a problem.  I need to prioritize my time as our lives here are getting busier. 

I have loved both blog sites.  It is really hard to choose between the two.  I have been here at homestead blogger the longest.  The blogger site however is easier for me, with my very limited knowledge of computer skills, to update and change the look of the blog page.

In order to simplify my life more, I am going to be posting to this homestead blogger account only about once a week or so.  The main thing that tips the scales for me to the blogger account is that I have more than one blog there and will be able to manage all the blogs at one site.  I have the blogs separated, one being a simple living theme and the other is a recipe blog.  I will also be starting a small blog there on homeschooling & early education resources. 

I am hoping that by keeping the majority of my blog posts in one area, it will be easier for the readers to navigate and find each of the blogs.  I love blogging here at homestead blogger.  As I said, the other account is just a lot easier for me to work with as I do not understand HTML and how to dress up the blog here.

"Gimme, Gimme, Gimme"

 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." {Proverbs 22:6}

Every so often, you will notice something that seems to be a snapshot of today's society.  In our mail yesterday, we received an advertisement that sums up the attitude so prevalent in our society.  The ad was the weekly sales paper for a major discount store.  Most of the ad was geared towards Christmas.  One item in particular jumped out at me and just rubbed me the wrong way.  It is a negative image, but one that sadly is a truth of the way society in general thinks.  The item was a teenage girl's size t-shirt with the image of a kid jumping up and down with great enthusiasm while yelling "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!"

Each year, kids write up their Christmas list or tell their parents what they want.  Each year, it seems that the price of the child's "wants" gets higher and higher.  The list often puts a financial strain on the parents as they spend beyond their means, buying the Christmas gifts on credit and later paying not just the original purchase price but hundreds of dollars more in interest on those credit purchases over the next few months as they pay down the balance.

At what point do we step up and tell our children the realities?  In giving in to their whims and wants so freely, are we really doing what is best for them?  I remember times as a child when my parents had to say "No" to us, even when it hurt to do so.  There is nothing wrong with a child learning that they can not always get the "biggest and best" things that they are wanting.  There is nothing wrong with teaching our children that family needs take priority over the whim and wants of the individual family members. 

If you, as a parent, are feeling the financial burden of buying the "wants" of your children what blessing are you giving them?  Yes, they will enjoy the gifts......for a time until something better comes along.  In the meantime however, they have a stressed parent who is trying to pay off the debt of those gifts.

I am not trying to say that you should never give your child a gift they are wanting.  I only mean to say that we should use caution and careful consideration.  Our children deserve to have a parent who is not stressed.  I have seen children who are continually indulged and given their every "want" when they ask.  Often, these children grow up to have a sense of entitlement.  They feel that they are entitled to be given whatever they want and have never really understood that you need to work for what you want.  Not all children turn out this way, but it happens more often than not.  On the other hand, children who are not continually indulged will often learn the value of what they have.

In the scripture I posted at the beginning, we are told that how we train up our children when they are young will influence how they will become as an adult.  If we teach them that their every whim is theirs for the asking, what kind of adult will our child grow to become?  Yes, the verse in Proverbs was speaking about training up your child in the faith.  Child rearing is a double edged sword however.  It cuts both ways. 

Fleecing the Window, Part 2

Wow!  The questions I am already getting about my post this morning has me thinking I better do another with more details.  LOL

You can fleece the windows in a couple of ways.  If you have some tension rods that fit inside the window frame, you can make a little casing at the top hem of the fleece, blanket, or quilt material.  Then you simply thread the fleece onto the casing and place it in the window as close to the top of the window frame as possible.  If the fleece is a couple of inches wider than the window, then you can have it slightly gathered to be able to tuck the sides in and prevent cold air from coming around the sides of the fleece.

Another method would be to make the fleece about 6 inches wider than the window opening.  You can then thread it through a curtain rod and hang in place.  If you want it to fit snug, you can always tack the sides in a couple of places to keep it against the window trim.

For doorways we simply tack the blankets or fleece at the top of the doorway or entry and let it hang down.  You can always get a heavy tension rod to use also.  If you want it to look fancier, you can place a curtain dowel rod on brackets on the side of the entryway that most guests would see.  Add a pretty bracket on the side of the entryway to tuck the blanket in when you need the entryway left open.  This would be especially helpful in entries where you may have to walk through while carrying something such as a basket of laundry.

Entryway curtains were something often used in the previous generations.  They were especially used alot before the invention of the accordian doors.  They gave the privacy and function of a door without having to open and close a wooden door in small areas.  In our home, we have a very small bathroom.  A hinged door would never fit as it would bang into things whether it opened into the bathroom or into the laundry room where the bathroom doorway is located.  To solve the privacy issue, a curtain or an accordian door is used. 

I have often seen the same idea of a tension rod with a curtain used for kitchen cabinets or pantry shelving to keep the items on the shelves clean from dust.  If you have home canned items, the curtains also will help to protect the jars from direct sunlight which can cause the home canned foods to discolor.

Fleecing the Window

Last night the temperature dropped low enough that we had our first frost of the season.  My Beloved has been working on the bathroom as time permits to finish a wall.  When he took down the plastic tarp that had been there for quite some time, he uncovered an old window.  The top part of the window was broken, so while the weather was still warm, we put in a temporary screen so that we could take advantage of the natural light and breeze.  Now that the temperatures are colder, he put up plastic on the outside of the window to help keep the cold air out. 

Whenever I see polar fleece on sale, I try to pick up a few yards.  There are so many wonderful uses for it.  Today, I am using some of the fleece to make a window covering for that bathroom window.  A doubled layer of polar fleece made into a single panel curtain will help to reduce the cold coming in a window.  You can also take the fleece and use it as a quilt batting in the window covering or when making a quilt for the doorways to help keep the heat in a central area. 

Each year, we put blankets or other heavy material over our old single pane windows.  It makes a big difference in how warm the rooms are able to stay.  In the hot summer days, a heavy window covering like that will also help to keep the rooms cooler.  We have 3 doorways that also have blankets over them in the winter.  By doing this, we are able to best utilize the heat from our wood stoves by keeping the heat in the central 3 rooms: livingroom, kitchen/dining room, and the little ones' bedroom.

Earlier this week, I finished a crocheted shawl that I am going to sell.  I am trying to finish a second one so that I can have 2 for people to choose between.  I am also cutting out and preparing the sewing projects that I want to work on over the next couple of days. 

Prairie Mom's Kitchen

Yesterday, I worked on a new recipe blog called, Prairie Mom's Kitchen.  I have been getting so many requests for recipes that I wanted a central location to place them.  I added about 13 recipes to the blog yesterday to get it started.  I will be adding more recipes each day to get it built up.

In an update, Sunday I had an experience with our sheep.   I think that the ewe may be going into heat again.  She is getting aggressive and so is the ram.  It seems that each time she is in heat, she gets the sheep version of a PMS attitude I think.  LOL   Basically, she will lower her head and hit my hipbone.  She nearly knocks me over when it happens.  Her back is the same height as my hip, so we are not talking about a little small sheep breed.  She is approximately 20 months old and 150+ pounds in weight.  The ram, who was born last February is already her height and weighs as much as she does.  At full size, he will be about 250 pounds in weight.  I was helping out Joe by feeding the sheep since he was busy putting plastic on some windows in preparation for winter.  The sheep still had a bit of feed in their dish from the day before, so I only needed to add a small amount.  Well, as I was walking to the feed pan the ram ducked his head and bumped me in the hip.  I got hm to stop after the second hit, then turn to pour the feed in the pan.  Suddenly, I got hit by the ewe!  Naughty girl!  Unlike the ram, she kept it up hitting me 3 times before I could get away.  Such naughty behavior!  She only gets weird like this when she is in heat, otherwise she is very docile.  Thank heavens this breed doesn't get horns. 

It is now 3 days later and I am still very stiff and sore.  I had tried eating a bit of catfish on Saturday hoping ti would be a meat that I can eat without my fibromyalgia flaring up.  No such luck.  Between eating the fish on Saturday and the sheep being playfully aggressive on Sunday, my fibromyalgia has done a complete flare up causing pain throughout my entire body.  I am also stiff in the hip area since they both went after the same hip. 

Joe now wants me to not feed the sheep unless he is with me.  They don't get frisky with him as they know he would prove that he is the "Alpha" of this homestead.  LOL   The children are never in the animal enclosure at all unless Joe is right there with them for safety reasons.  I am hoping that the ewe will calm down once she has a lamb.  We will be separating her and the ram in December and we know she has been bred.  With them bumping and being playful, we can't risk the ram hurting her when she is bred.  Basically, they will only be together during the fall when she is ready to breed.

Abigail and Micah are doing great.  Abbie is enjoying the fall weather while she can.  Soon enough, the weather will turn too cold for her to play outdoors all day.  I am not looking forward to that time as she is definitely an outdoors person like her father.  Micah seems to be the same.  We toss a blanket on the ground and let him lay on it to get some fresh air and sunshine.  He loves it when the breeze is blowing.  He lays there cooing and laughing alot.  He rolls over and then tries to wiggle across the blanket.  I am looking forward to him being mobile.  By this time next year, he will be out there with his sister playing in the sandbox and enjoying the outdoors.

Homemde Pancakes

Over the past couple of weeks, Abigail has been asking each morning for pancakes.  They are her favorite breakfast.  I never use a packaged mix.  The recipe I use is a very easy and inexpensive one to make.

This is a good basic recipe.  You can use it for plain pancakes.  You can also have a bit of fun with the recipe.  We often will dress it up by adding chopped up fruit or berries.  We often keep a bag of frozen blueberries or some other fruit in the freezer just for adding to the pancakes.

Cape Dresses on Ebay

It is a bit strange to see the clothing style that you wear listed on Ebay under the heading of costumes.  How strange that plain, modest dress in today's world is considered to be a costume instead of a dress.  If you go to any large city's shopping mall and look around, you see people (especially the youth & young adults) wearing things that certainly look more like a Halloween costume than the plain style of a cape dress! 

Thankfully, I did find a dress to fit me.  It will be a nice one to help me out until I am able to get some made that will fit me better.  Currently, I only have 1 dress that fits me in a modest way.  I am selling the ones I have out-grown.  They are in gently used condition, but fit me a little too well if you know what I mean.  I'm only selling two at the moment. The other two will be sold later after I see how these ones go.  I have them on our family's website with a link to our Ebay listings. 

I am praying that since I listed them under the heading of "Women's Dresses" that they will go to another plain dressing woman and not be used as a costume.

Avoiding colds & illness in little ones

It is disheartening how many young moms are not taught how to help their little ones avoid illnesses through proper care of the baby bottles, pacifiers, and sippy cups.  Over the past few omnths, I have heard many young moms talking about their little ones getting sick often or having chronic problems with catching colds or other illnesses, sometimes even thrush.

One of the ways that we have avoided illnesses with our little ones is to be very diligent in the care of the bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers.  Amazingly, most young moms have no idea how to sterilize these things.  Just this one simple task has helped tremendously in preventing illnesses.  Now that we have 2 little ones, it will be even more important.

The first thing that helps to prevent illness is the obvious of limiting contact of your children with others who are sick.  Of course if you have a little one in day care or public school, they will share the illnesses with the little ones at home.  Whenever possible, you should limit contact however.

Teaching little ones to wash their hands during the day is also important.  Especially after using the bathroom.  You can also make up a batch of hand wipes for them to use.  Take a stack of wash cloths and soak them in a solution of water with a few drops of baby wash in it.  We use these as baby wipes for diaper changing also.  If you have a container of these where the little ones can reach them, they can easily be taught to use one to wipe their face and hands.

One effective way to prevent the sharing of illness between little ones is to not allow them to share sippy cups, bottles or pacifiers.  Take this also a step further.  Each night after the little ones have gone to bed, when you wash the bottles, sippy cups, and pacifiers take the extra time to toss them into a large kettle and sterilize them.    Sterilizing these items will do much to help prevent the sickness from speading.  Especially things like pacifiers!  A little one who has just gotten over a cold can have a relapse if you do not wash & sterilize the pacifier they used during the illness.  As a matter of habit, I sterilize the bottles and all their parts, the sippy cups and all their parts, and the pacifiers every day.  Whether it be at night or during their afternoon nap, I sterilize a whole day's supply of these.  Sterilizing all the little parts is especially important if you use the Dr. Brown type bottles or others with parts that are hard to clean.  The same goes for the flow restrictors in the newer sippy cups that are very difficult to clean due to the flow restrictor's design.

Here is the process that I use to sterilize.  I use my water bath canner kettle as it is large enough to hold everything.  I place all the bottles, sippy cups, their parts, and the pacifiers into the kettel and over with enough water to allow the bottles & cups to be fully submerged.  Place the kettle on the stove and bring the water to a boil.  Continue boiling for 15 minutes.  I then turn off the heat and allow the water to cool.  They are then dried with a clean towel.  Since I make up a day's worth of homemade formula each day, I go ahead and refill the bottles with the formula.  Sippy cups are allowed to dry fully before I assemble them, unless they are needed before they have dried.  Pacifiers are allowed to air dry, then are stored in a container to help keep them clean until they are needed. 

There are some websites that say sterilizing bottles is no longer needed if you make the formula with city water that has been treated.  Some medical websites disagree though.  I agree with the doctors on this one.  We live in a rural area.  The water we get is through a rural water system, similar to a city's system.  We are receiving letters in the mail on a regular basis however that the water is not yet up to the standards that it is supposed to be ~ containing pollutants that should not be there.  The other reason is the design of the bottles & sippy cups.  Even using hot soapy water and a bottle brush, you cannot get into all the areas that need cleaning.  So, to be safe I will sterilize them.

Hopefully some of these ideas will be of a help. 

Pantry Planning for Pets

Anyone with cats or dogs knows that there are ocassionally times when you run short on pet food.  Of course, if you live in the city it is easy to stop at a store to buy more.  Living in a rural area can make a simple trip to the store out of the question.  What do you do if you run out of pet food just before a payday?  What about winter storms or other situation when making a trip to the store is not possible?

If you are planning your pantry for winter, you should always try to plan ahead for your animals also.  Just as a winter storm can cause a hardship on us if our pantry is not well stocked, it can be devastating to pets. 

Our cats are all outdoor barn cats.  We never keep cats in our home.  For food, they hunt rodents which helps to keep the rodents from getting into the livestock feed and hay.  The added benefit being that because the cats hunt rodents, we have no large rodent-eating snakes around the house, barn or outbuildings.  Even though we only put out a small amount of food for the cats, mainly kitchen scraps that the sheep cannot eat, we still need to think ahead for winter.  During winter months, the rodent population is lower and there is much less for the cats to hunt.  This is where planning ahead can be a blessing.

Recently, I came across a couple of websites that have recipes for making homemade pet food.  The first is Pet Food Cookbook.  This site has many recipes for dogs, cats, and birds.  The second site is Healthy Recipes for Pets. Healthy Recipes for Pets has recipes for cats and dogs.  A special section for each also contains recipes for pets on special diets due to health issues.

I now have in my notebook a couple of recipes for cats.  I chose recipes that use items found in our pantry on a regular basis.  This will allow me to easily have the necessary ingredients on hand if the situation should ever arise that we need to make the homemade pet food.  We are planning to get dogs in the spring to start working with the sheep.  For that reason, I also have a couple of recipes for dogs. 

Here is a very simple basic recipe for cats that will work in a pinch.  Cook up some rice and lentils.  To this add some leftover vegetables and a can of tuna.  For cat food, you may want to have some tuna packed in oil.  The oil is good for them.  Mix this all together and let cool before feeding to your cats.  You can feed the same thing to dogs.  My husband remembers often feeding rice with leftovers mixed in to their dogs when he was growing up.

Our Electric Bill

We have had so many inquiries from those who read my husband's and my blogs about our electric bill that I wanted to post.  Yesterday, we received our first bill that has a full month of the limited usage.  Last August, when we started this journey towards cutting out the majority of our electricity usage, our electric bill was $250 for 1 month of usage!  That was the bill which had my Beloved reaching the point where enough was enough.  So, we started making changes.  These changes have paid off greatly.  We removed the air conditioners, TV, VCR, DVD, many of the small appliances from the kitchen, and much more. Granted, the air conditioners were the major contributor to our bill, but the other things also had an effect. 

So, what was the new amount for the current bill?  It was $51 for the month!  What a blessing it was to see that the changes are having such a pronounced effect.  The lower bill gives us also the drive to try and take it further, lower our usage even more.

Thank you to all who have emailed, sent messages, or left comments about our changing to a more simple lifestyle.

New Christmas Giveaway

There is a new Christmas Giveaway taking place!  Mennobrarian has put together a wonderful giveaway Christmas themed package  The drawing will be held on October 8th.  You can read about it and sign up at her blog. 

Best Wishes!

Little Helpers in the Kitchen

Over the past week, I have gained a little helper in the kitchen.  No matter what she is playing with, when Abbie sees me preparing to cook or bake she is soon in the kitchen.  She has taken quite an interest in watching me as I prepare meals or am baking breads or other treats.

Last Saturday morning as I started baking some bread, Abbie came running into the kitchen.  As I measured out ingredients, she would pour them into the bowl.  I loved it when she counted with me the number of cups of flour that went into the dough.  It was one of those little moments when you can sneak in some educating with a toddler.  After I stirred up the dough and was ready to knead it, Abbie wanted to help. 

I am now working on making Abbie a couple of pinafore-style aprons.  With the holiday baking season approaching, I am sure there will be many times when she will be baking with me.  What a joy it is to have a little one who is so interested in helping!  I love the opportunities that I have like this to spend time with her and also nuture her natural interest in helping.  While having a little one in the kitchen makes things take longer to get done, it is a good opportunity to begin to instill in them the idea of helping with daily tasks.

Pumpkins & More

I wanted to thank those who let me know of the broken link in my post about pumpkins.  I fixed it.  Here is the link to the article I wrote about "Cooking Fresh Pumpkins" in case you are interested by didn't read the other blog entry.  The problem with that link was the browser that I was using.  We have 2 internet browsers on the computer.  We love using Mozilla's FireFox browser, but some of the websites where you are adding links or when we are updating our family website don't function well with FireFox, so for those we have to use Internet Explorer.  When I wrote the blog entry and included the hyperlink to the article, I was on FireFox and the link came up as a java code.  I apologise to those who were frustrated with it.  Thank you again for letting me know.

The Lord blessed us greatly yesterday.  We have been without a family car for 15 months.  A semi truck totalled our car a year ago last June in a hit and run accident.  Praise the Lord, the car was off the freeway, disabled, and we were not in it when the accident happened!  Well, we were able to find another used car that is very similar to the one we had but in the 7 months we have had the car, it only has run 2 days.  My Beloved husband and others tried to repair it, replacing many of the parts, but to no avail.  Yesterday, a shop that we had the car towed to called.  It is only a small sensor that was not functioning and had disabled the car!  Praise the Lord!!!  The part, labor and towing are well within our budget and we will have a family car on Friday when we pick it up!    The second blessing came when my Beloved was leaving work.  His pickup truck wouldn't start.  The starter had gone out on it.  Again, the Lord provided.  The part was ordered and will be delivered today.  He was given a vehicle to borrow last night to get him home and again to work in this morning.  He will be able to repair the truck himself and bring the truck home after work today.

We are so thrilled about the car being repaired.  We have not been able to go to church since last February due first to my high risk pregnancy & being on bedrest, then after Micah's birth we could not all fit into the pickup truck as it is one of those little Rangers.  We have dearly missed being able to attend church and fellowship with our church family.  The church is 85 miles from our home.  Over the months we were unable to attend we have been doing home church, listening to recorded sermons and studying as a family.  While we love having the option of home church, we missed being at the church meetings. 

Sunday is a Communion Sunday and Micah will also be dedicated during the church service.  I have been looking forward to this so much.  No one at church has seen Micah, so he will be attending his first church meeting at 6 months of age.  Today I am going through my fabrics to find something that I can use to make him a church outfit.  Most of his clothing is sleepers and a few play-type clothes.  I want him to have a nice outfit for church.  Abbie already has a couple of new dresses that we were given.  I am having fun preparing for Sunday.  It feels so good to be doing this again.

Pumpkins!

My newest writings

Abbie's Squash

This morning, Abbie found a large 4-pound Butternut Squash in the garden.  She was so cute about it.  She kept saying "Squash ! Squash!" in her excited little voice.  I checked and sure enough, it was there and ready to be picked.  I picked the squash and she reached out her arms to carry it to the house.  At that size, she could barely manage, but she carefully carried it to the house.

I am now wondering how she will take the news that the squash will be tonight's dinner?

Outdoor Kitchen

I am so thrilled.  Today I got some more canning completed. I canned up some mixed veggies and a batch of spiced pears.  I had alot of the spiced syrup left over so am saving it to use on apples.

My pumpkins are producing quite a few on the vines.  I am keeping a close watch on a couple of them as they are nearly full size.  Now they just have to turn orange and ripen.  I will be using them to make the pies at Thanksgiving.  If they happen to not be ripened by then, I will use them for Christmas instead.  I am thinking of doing up some butternut squash to use for pies in case the pumpkins are not ripe enough.  Once seasoned, there is little difference in the flavor.  Store bought pumpkin pies often contain the squash instead of pumpkin.

While Joe took Abbie with him to the store to do the shopping today, Micah nearly slept all day long.  He has been so tired and miserable with his teething.  Friday, we were out taking care of a few things so he didn't get much sleep.  He made up for it today though.

We have been rearranging the kitchen a bit today.  I had 2 long tables, about the size of a rectangular banquet table, that I was using as counters since our kitchen doesn't have any to speak of other than the narrow ones on either side of the kitchen sink.  Today, Joe took the folding table out of the kitchen, and moved the wooden rectangular table into it's place.  This has really opened up the kitchen floor space.  The 2 tables had been in an "L" configuration.  Now, the remaining table is against the wall leaving only the dining table in the middle of the floor.  Our dining table is a large rectangular wooden one that I had been using for a table to cut my fabrics on.  With 2 children, our round table just wasn't going to be sufficient.  This larger table is also much more sturdy and I can use it for kneading the bread or any other purpose.  Eventually, we are wanting to get a couple of benches to set along the table instead of using chairs.

Joe took the folding table outdoors and set it up as a picnic table.  We will be grilling many of our meals in the evening.  Yet another way to lessen the amount of electricity used.  Next year, we are planning to buy a larger grill that will allow room for doing other types of cooking also.  Our goal is to use the electric stove only for baking and canning.  All other cooking will be done on a grill or the wood burning cookstove.  Just one step closer to an outdoor kitchen!