Homemaking Homesteader

Vanilla Ice Cream

I recently made vanilla ice cream and it was delicious!!  I wanted to share my recipe with you.   You can now find all my ice cream recipes (eggless recipes and non dairy too) and ice cream making directions here:  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/makinghomemadeicecream.htm    If I have more recipes to post I will be adding them to that page.   

Vanilla Ice Cream

6 eggs
3 cups cane juice crystals
2 T vanilla (only the real stuff)
2 c. whole cream
Whole Goat Milk, as much as needed to fill ice cream maker container (whole cow milk will work too.. :)
1 T arrowroot powder (helps make the ice cream smooth.. but this is optional if you don’t have any) 

In a big mixer (like a Kitchen Aid or Bosch) mix together (with the wire whip) the eggs and cane juice crystals until light and lemony colored. Add vanilla and mix again. Add cream and arrowroot powder (if using). When all of this has mixed together completely pour it into your 1 gallon ice cream maker container. Add whole milk until you reach the "fill line" on your ice cream maker container.  Follow the instructions that came with your ice cream maker or click on the above link for general instructions.

Bulk Taco Seasoning Mix

We are having taco salad for dinner tonight.  I always cook up my hamburger and add taco seasonings to it before adding it to my salad.  I realized this morning I was out of taco seasoning and it was time to make more.  This is another product that I make myself now.  We are not real big fans of the taste of the taco seasonings I use to buy from my health food co-op and I wonder about MSG in it as well (the grocery store stuff definitely is full of yucky things typically).  I recently was reading an article (wish I could remember where now.. maybe Dr. Mercola? If I find it I will give the link).  It said that if a product lists “spices” in their ingredient list and they purchase bulk mixed spices from a supplier that adds MSG to their spice mix then the company that uses the spice mix does not have to claim that it contains MSG. So basically something can say it is MSG free but still may contain MSG if they have the word "spices" listed in the ingredients.  If you have MSG sensitivities like my hubby does or you just want to avoid it for health reasons …  read your labels carefully!   

Taco mix is so easy to make. It takes less than 15 minutes to make up a batch, the recipe doubles easily.  I usually make a double batch but today I did not have enough dried onion, so I settled for a single batch.   

Bulk Taco Seasoning Mix

¾ c dried onions
½ c chili powder
¼ c salt
3T garlic powder
3T cornstarch
3T ground cumin
1T to 3T cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you like it) 

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Store in plastic or glass container with a lid. 

It takes approx. 3T of this mix to equal one packet that you would buy in the store.   

This recipe makes about 2 cups.  I store it in a canning jar in my cupboard.

This Weeks Menu

Our 25th wedding anniversary!! 

Tobin works so no holiday bbq for us.. already had it!

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Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

 We made chocolate ice cream this week and it was delicious!! I promised to post the recipe so here it is!  This is a variation of my Strawberry Ice Cream recipe (recipe link at the bottom of this post).  As I try out new flavors I will post them here.. 

Chocolate Ice Cream
Makes 1 gallon  

6 eggs
3 cups cane juice crystals
¾ c cocoa powder
1 T vanilla  (only the real stuff)
2 c. whole cream
Whole Goat Milk, as much as needed to fill ice cream maker container (whole cow milk will work too..  :)
1 T arrowroot powder (helps make the ice cream smooth.. but this is optional if you don’t have any) 

In a big mixer (like a Kitchen Aid or Bosch) mix together (with the wire whip) the eggs and cane juice crystals until light and lemony colored.  Add cocoa powder and vanilla mix again.  Add cream and arrowroot powder (if using).  When all of this has mixed together completely pour it into your 1 gallon ice cream maker container.  Add whole milk until you reach the “fill line” on your ice cream maker container.  Follow the instructions that came with your ice cream maker or you can read here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/strawberryicecream.htm  for basic instructions (the directions are for strawberry ice cream, but the basic “how tos” will work for any flavor). 

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.. 

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… 

Updates from the Homestead

This last week the weather has been cooler and cloudy.. with a little sun.  But despite that the garden seems to be thriving quite well.  There were enough sunny afternoons that allowed for us to get some weeding, watering and mulching done.  I have found that the stirrup hoe is my best friend!     My mother in law was the one to show me her stirrup hoe several years ago and I went out and bought one (I think I bought it at Home Depot).  It makes quick and efficient work of hoeing between the garden rows.  If you are not familiar with them you can see a pic of one here: http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1334167&CAWELAID=109366885  and read a little more about them here: http://aces.nmsu.edu/CES/yard/2005/010105.html   Here you can see Isaac using it.. 

And in the above picture you can my little plants have all come up.  The corn and green beans are doing great.  Speaking of hoes..  I accidentally hoed up half of a little section of flowers..    I was so frustrated with myself.  I had been hoeing up the weeds between the tomato plants and there was one section between the tomatoes I had planted flowers and I guess I was not thinking..  I started hoeing it!!  I will try and replant some flowers there but it might be too late..  but I will try.   

Last week I also spent one whole day in town.  I took the kids (Leanne, Sierra and Isaac) and we were gone for 7 hours, which is not unusual.  I try to limit my trips into town and when I do go I typically have a lot to take care. Sierra had her bangs cut (I think the lady could have taken off a bit more), the dentist, grocery shopping at two different stores, Walmart, Game Stop, and of course a trip to Starbucks was squeezed in there.  The kids thought it would be fun to take pics of our day along the way.  They took several but got tired of picture taking about half way through the trip..  but here are a few of us that were captured …   

Leaving (The ice chest holds everything cold for the long drive back home)

Sierra getting her bangs cut..

Isaac showing off his Strawberry Cream Frappuccino

The dentist (teeth cleaning for me and Leanne)

Smile mom…

Bagging groceries…

And the day continued…  but without the pics..    Next time they say they want to do this again.. and make a movie.. LOL..  Kids.. they are so funny!!   

We came home and I made chicken enchiladas for dinner and while they cooked we watered the garden.  I was definitely ready to put my feet up and relax by evening time.   

Hubby is back to work now (he had an extra day off this last week which was so nice) and it is back to the regular routine for us..  Today the plan is to do a quick run through the daily chores, clean out the fridge and wipe down the shelves, do a little laundry, and water the garden if it does not rain (and right now looking outside at the dark cloudy skies it looks like we may not have to water today).  I am making navy bean soup with the leftover ham bone I saved from last week, a salad and maybe some dinner rolls or bread sticks.   

That is all from the homestead..  hope you all have a great weekend!! 

An Afternoon in the Kitchen

Yesterday I had a wonderfully unscheduled afternoon and decided to spend that time in the kitchen.  It was productive and enjoyable as well!   

I started off by making 6 loaves of bread.  We were completely out of bread and were in crisis mode! LOL.. 

Then while the bread was rising and baking I started working on making a gallon jar of sauerkraut.  I used one green cabbage and half of a red cabbage and 2 onions.  I thought the addition of red cabbage sure made the kraut look pretty. 

Then while the kraut sat in the bowl with the salt and whey I began making a gallon of salsa.  I love utilizing all these fresh veggies and knowing that fermenting means they will last longer and have more vitamin content than if I did not ferment them.  The salsa looked great too.  Here is a pic of both….

For dinner we were going to grill hamburgers and hot dogs.  So after the bread, salsa, and kraut were done I made up a batch of my oat dinner rolls and turned them into 10 hamburger buns and 12 hot dog buns.

Finally Leanne made shortcake, Sierra sliced up the berries and we had strawberry shortcake for our dessert…

Working in the kitchen and making good quality food for my family is very rewarding..  now today.. it is on to laundry and chores!!   

Make Your Own Salad Dressings

I use to buy all my salad dressing from the grocery store. I thought that was how everyone did it. I felt like making salad dressing myself would just be one more kitchen job to do and I wanted the convenience of store bought dressing… Then I became health conscious and started reading labels and well, most of the dressings I found, were, well, yuck as far as ingredients go. Sugar, bad oils, hydrogenated oils, MSG, fillers, thickeners, etc.. When I try and find better quality dressings (which I can find at health food stores and through Azure) I find them to be very expensive, especially considering the rate at which we consume salad in this house (we eat fresh green salad every day).

Sometimes our perception that something is going to be hard or time consuming is just that, a perception. I eventually began making my own salad dressings and found that not only are they a frugal and healthy, they don’t take any time at all to put together. Last night I made a batch of Oriental Salad Dressing and timed myself.. it took less than 5 minutes for me to mix up the recipe and it yielded about 2 cups of dressing. Our favorite dressing of all time is still Ranch. But we also make Italian and a few others when we are in the mood for variety.

Here are my favorite recipes:

Ranch Salad Dressing
Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing
Catalina Salad Dressing
Italian Salad Dressing
Oriental Salad Dressing

Breakfast and Lunch Menu Planning

Just curious. I have big menus for all my meals and I get very tired of cooking all the day long... seems all that I do at times! Just curious what your method for those other meals is... 

Well I am pretty lazy when it comes to breakfast!  And.. my kids are older now and have different schedules so breakfast around here is a pretty simple affair. I don't plan these meals like I do dinners. 

During the summer I make granola.  I quadruple the recipe and it fills up 4 gallon size jars.  My 4 teenagers and 1 one pre-teen go through this in about 4 to 6 weeks.  I also have kefir always in the fridge that is used to make smoothies.  I use kefir, fruit, and a little maple syrup to sweeten. My older girls sometimes just like to have a piece of peanut butter toast and a smoothie or a piece of fruit.  My younger ones will eat the granola and fruit, and a smoothie.  Once or twice a week either I or one of my daughters will whip up a batch of scrambled eggs and bacon or maybe some pancakes.   Occasionally we will make a coffee cake or muffins.  In the winter we eat lots of oatmeal (instead of the granola) and the rest of the menu stays about the same.   

For lunch, the main rule is..  leftovers..  if there is anything left from last nights dinner it needs to be eaten up first.  And most of the time there is, in fact often I will make a little extra of whatever it is we are having for dinner (soup, chili, spaghetti, etc) so I will have some for lunch the next day.   

Other lunch time food:

Whole wheat tortillas used to make wraps
Sandwiches: egg salad, tuna salad, ham salad, pb&j, etc..
Hot dogs (yes I am guilty of buying these unhealthy things now and again..  )
Nachos (tortilla chips topped with cheese and served with homemade salsa)
Homemade soups: Chili bean soup (meatless), taco soup (meatless), corn chowder, vegetable soup, tomato soup.  Soups can also be frozen so if you make one batch it can last for a few lunches.  

I also add fruit to the lunch meals..   

I guess I have always been of the mindset with breakfast and lunch that “variety is NOT the spice of life”..  haa.. haa..  I think simple, simple so I can get on with my day.  My time spent in the kitchen is usually focused on bread baking and making dinner or other projects like making fermented veggies and so on.

Any other thoughts on how you plan breakfast and lunch to share with this mom?? 

This Weeks Menu

Pies

The Bosch Pie Crust that I love so much! 

Cream together peanut butter, cream cheese & sugar. Whip cream until thick. Add to peanut butter mixture with butter, sour cream & vanilla. Pour into crust. Chill for 2 hours. Drizzle some chocolate sauce over the top of the pie. Serve to your eagerly waiting family..    

 

Updates from the Homestead

Today is slightly overcast with the promise that some of it may burn off, we will see.  In any case it is not raining or cool so it will be a perfect afternoon to get out in the garden.  I have been trying to get to some weeding done for the last few days but life has been busy, busy.  The kids and I have kept up with the watering and I weed some as we water.  We have to water by hand right now.  I have a spring near the garden that we use to water but because there is not a lot of elevation from the spring pond to the garden, I can’t use sprinklers.  And because it is a pond with pond debris in it, I can’t use soaker hoses.. they get plugged up.  So we water with watering cans until the plants are bigger and then we use PVC pipe and do “ditch irrigation” along the side of the rows.  The system works quite well. 

Tobin is working on Emily’s little red Jetta again today.  There was some problem with the back wheel and he has been fixing that and taking care of other car maintenance at the same time.  Emily asked the yesterday, “What do people who don’t have dads to take care of their cars do?”.  We both chuckled at this and said..  “They have to take their cars to a mechanic and pay for repairs”.    As she is thinking about life on her own one day I think she had even more of an appreciation on how well her dad takes care of her.     I will say that in over 25 years of life with my man I have never had to worry about having car issues while out and about.  He is so incredibly responsible in keeping up with car maintenance (he even has a spread sheet to keep track of when and what he does on all our vehicles)..  I think it is the aircraft mechanic in him (airplane mechanics is all about scheduled maintenance).   

Leanne is now home and I have all my chicks back in the nest for a bit.  She was house sitting and caring for Miss Margaret (the little 90+ year old lady she watches while her son and his wife vacation).  I always miss her when she is gone.  She was gone for a week and last night was so happy to be home.  She is homebody just like her mom . 

Jacob and Sierra are working to finish up the last of their schooling.. should be done with it all very soon.  Testing should be this month.  I need to call the lady who does this for us and see when it will be.  Then we will officially be done with the school year.   

Yesterday Sierra and I made 4 gallons of my granola.  Hopefully that will last us for a month or so!  

Today on my to-do list I have my regular Wednesday chores, laundry, and dinner preps.  I am going to make an Oriental Chicken Salad for dinner and maybe some bread sticks or dinner rolls to go with it.  I also need to make up some more kefir. Granola and kefir smoothies make a great summertime breakfast.  After the to-do list is done I will head to the garden.   

Hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday on your Homesteads!! 

What a Difference a Week Makes

I am just loving my little garden!  It has only been one week (and a couple days) since we planted it but already I have little plants growing.  Why should this surprise me?  I don’t know but it always does..  Seeing the wonders of God always has me in awe.   

Here are a few pics of the garden.  I was standing in the back for this one.  If you look closely you can see the green sprouts coming up…. 

This one is from the front of the garden looking back..  We put the tomato cages on Sunday afternoon.. 

In one week here is what my beans are looking like..

And my corn…

Today I need to weed..  again..    and mulch.. 

Potato Salad

Gardens and Shortcake

This morning when I got up I decided to get the angel food cake made for shortcake. I knew I would be outside working in the garden and then it would be time to make dinner and I wanted to get it done before that. When I was out shopping yesterday I bought 8lbs of strawberries at Costco.  The kids had already eaten 4lbs of them and if I did not get that cake made the other 4lbs would be gone and Tobin really enjoys shortcake.   I made the cake with some really big free range eggs (I don’t have any chickens right now so I buy the eggs from my food co-op, Azure Standard )..  Those whites whipped up sooo nicely and the cake was just perfect.  Here is a pic of the cake and a piece all made into shortcake… 

If you would like the angel food cake recipe you find it HERE.. 

Hope you all had a beautiful Saturday on your homesteads..      

Updates from the Homestead

 

The sun came out this week it was so nice!  Hubby did some wood gathering; time to start another year of getting in the winter wood.  We still start a fire some days to take the chill off, but I see that changing soon.  We are almost out of wood now.   

This week Tobin spent a couple hours or so letting Leanne get some driving practice in.  She has her permit and is now working on her license.  She will be driving by summer’s end, I am sure.   

I finally ordered seeds for my garden this week, they should arrive today.  I was not sure if I was going to have a garden but my girls really wanted one and I figured this summer does not look anywhere near as busy as last summer was so I think we can stay on top of it.  I will also buy some plants (tomatoes and cucumbers) and hopefully we will have it all planted by this weekend.  Tobin rototilled the garden on Monday for the 3rd time so it should be ready to go now.   

In the kitchen this week I made another gallon of salsa and did some baking.  I used my whole wheat oat dinner roll recipe to make hamburger buns and cinnamon rolls and made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies.  All of which has been eaten and it is time to make more.    I love using that recipe for hamburger and hotdog buns.. so nice and soft.   

Jacob worked for the neighbor a couple of times this week and squeezed in his school work as well.  He is just about done.  All the kids are just about done with school this year..  yea!  It will be time to put those school books away in another couple of weeks.   

Can’t remember if I shared this or not..  but Leanne is now all done with high school!  She got her GED results in the mail and passed all her tests with flying colors.  We are very proud of her.  She is now working on her CLEP’s as she gets ready to join Emily in the College Plus ranks.  She says she would like to work towards an English degree and maybe eventually go into teaching.  She is not sure but thinks maybe missionary work might be in her future and if so a teaching degree would be helpful.  Lots of plans going on as I watch my children grow up and make plans for their lives.. an exciting time!  

Emily is working on her classes through Thomas Edison State College now and doing well.  I think she is getting tired (she has been going strong with her college work since last April) but is determined and tenacious to see this to the end.  We could not be more proud of her hard work as she strives to meet her goals.   

Today Leanne, Sierra and I are headed to town to do some grocery shopping and buy those garden plants and few other things on my list.  We will stop and get our coffee at Starbucks (the “going to town” tradition) and then head off to get our work accomplished. I think I will call Hannah and see if she is busy today.. would love to spend my day in town with her and my grandbaby too!    I don’t think I have posted a recent picture of my granddaughter Elizabeth.  This picture was taken when Hannah was here for Emily’s birthday earlier this month.  She is really growing and is such a sweet baby…. 

Dinner tonight is pot roast and mashed potatoes, a salad and maybe some watermelon if the price is good.  I will put the roast in the crockpot before I leave for town.   

That’s all the updates from my homestead..  Hope you all have a beautiful weekend on your homestead! 

Getting Children Involved in the Home Chores

My recent blog post “to-do lists revisited” I talked about my kids doing chores.  I had a comment/question: 

Hi Crystal, how do you get your children involved with your chores? Mine do not want to help, they want to play. When I force them to help, they complain the whole time.
I am so exhausted of asking all the time for them to do their chores - just set up the table, fill the glass with water.
They are 7 and 10 and I don't think that asking for help to set up the table is expecting too much from them?
What do you think?

No, I don’t think you are asking to much from them in any way.  You asked how I get my children involved with chores.  It is part of their childhood training.  Chores are not an option or something annoying that must be done.. it is just part of life..  kind of like eating and school, etc..   It is a basic that when we make messes.. we clean them up. It is part of living real life.   I have had my children doing chores since they were little.  Cleaning up their toys, rooms, emptying the dishwasher, taking out the garbage, folding laundry and working with me doing what ever job I am doing.  As they got older they started taking on certain jobs as their responsibility… someone takes care of the bathroom cleaning, someone cleans the living room, someone vacuums, a couple of kids are usually assigned kitchen duty and other jobs are shared like folding the kitchen and bathroom towels (everyone now does their own laundry and the only common household laundry is the kitchen and bathroom towels).  I rotate these jobs around occasionally.  By the time they are 12 they are doing their own laundry, cleaning and caring for their own rooms and their designated household responsibilities and other various jobs.  My girls help with the cooking, my boys are responsible for bringing in the firewood all winter.   

Do they always like to do their chores?  No..  Do they complain? sometimes..  but regardless like eating and sleeping they must be done.. that is jut life.  

If it were me I would make it known that from now on chores are an expected part of the day.  If kids don’t have regular routines and out the blue you ask them to stop what they are doing and work..  it is harder to get cooperation.  But if they already know this is an expected part of their day it becomes a normal part of life’s routine.   

After they know that from this point forward they will have chores to do daily then write them out and give them each a list of their own chores to accomplish each day.  They can morning and evening chores.    

If they complain then you need some way of dealing with. I find that if they know what to expect, they do it regularly, then the complaining is really not a big issue.  If it continued to be I would have to take away some privilege for a day for the complaining.  My children know that it is of no value to complain and find getting their job done in a timely manner means they can move onto the thing they want to do.   

Hope that helped answer the question!