My new projects

My sister Marg sent us some dish scrubbers several years ago.  She told me someone at the senior center makes and sells them.  They are made from bridal veil lace (what I call tulle) and crouched.  We both love using these to not only wash pots, but for all of our dishes.  I hate to ask her to send me more of them, so I decided to try making them myself. 
I bought a bolt of tulle at a yard sale for $2 years ago.  Marci wanted it for some project so I took it to Maryland went I went to visit (before Shelby and Josef).  I got it back when I wanted to use it for a project in the garden several years ago.  The project never happened so Delana ended up with it to make princess beds for the girls. That also never happened so I got it back last week so I could try making the scrubbies. 
I simply cut 2 - 3 inch strips of the tulle and connected them together

and after chain stitching to make a base circle, then double crochet the rest until I got a circle the size I wanted.  The larger cut makes the pad fuller and a little more difficult to hold. 

But they are great at scrubbing!!!!  I think I will have to make a few more.  It didn't take long and they work SO well. 

My other project is a rag rug made from old jeans.  I ask my family to save all of their old (to worn to pass down)  jeans and will often find them for free at yard sales.  I cut them into 2" strips and connect the strips them roll a big ball  as if it were yarn. 

This is my finished rug.  I am amazed at how bad the ones I made last year are when compared to this one.  We live in the middle of nowhere.  We are outside a LOT and carry a lot of dirt into the house with us.  These rugs take a beating and hold so much dirt.  When I pull them up to sweep the amount of dirt they picked up is amazing.  Last years rugs really need to be treated to the power washer when the weather warms up.  I think it will take a full week to dry them out even if the weather is nice.  I love these rugs because they are so easy on the feet (mine seldom have shoes) and just look good.  Besides, what a nice way to recycle old blue jeans that would normally go to the landfill. 







January thoughts

January is almost history. I can't believe how fast time flies, and I don't get nearly enough done on a daily basis. I must be slowing down as I get older, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like I am always busy. I think I started this journey way to late in my life. This is something I should have started in my 20's or 30's.

Phil and I both love Mother Earth News and Grit and usually fight over who gets to read it first. We got a new issue yesterday, and I was sitting at the kitchen table reading about homesteaders (a new catch phrase for people who choose to live like we do) The question was "What is the biggest misconception people have about homesteading". The answer, "That homesteading can be tidy and that every homestead is picture perfect. The truth is it's a messy, exhausting way to live. There are always things to do, and you must learn to live with the feeling of not having accomplished all you wanted to do on a given day". Wow, did that guy look inside my head? I am forever kicking myself because I don't get enough done. I continue to pile more tasks on my plate but have not figured out how to make more time.

Winter has been my time to somewhat sit back and relax after the long hard growing and preserving season. Last winter I crouched rag rugs from old blue jeans. It was a fun way to spend my evenings. This year I took up cheese making. It is fun, and will be very rewarding, but I find it has taken up all of my weekends for the last few months. I keep thinking if I could find a way to not work outside the home I would have time for all of these projects, but I don't know. Phil has not worked for 2 years and he doesn't seem to keep up with his projects. I think I need to find a way to come to terms with being OK that things aren't done the way I wish they were. I don't stress out as much about the house being a disaster. I am irritated that the carpets are not vacuumed enough, but the dishes are done on a regular basis.  I am irritated that the toilet (and the floor around it) looks horrible, but the sheets are washed on a weekly basis.  I am irritated that the furniture is so dusty it is embarrassing, but the dogs are fed and well cared for.  I guess I have picked my battles, and try to get past the rest. 

Sometimes I need to sit back and reflect on what we have accomplished over the last few years.  Yesterday coming home we sat on the road and looked at Pooh Acres.  What a difference from 4 ½ years ago. 

2011 is almost at it's end.  We have so much to be thankful for, and so much to look forward to.  The older I get, the more amazed I am at how quickly time flys by.  Wasn't it February just a few months ago?  How did summer come and go so quickly?   How did Caelum get taller than me? How did Ruby and Olivia become such big girls? 
I called Marci a few days ago to establish (in my mind) how old the kids are.  I STILL can't get it straight ...  I think the kids are MUCH younger than they are.  I am not sure how time slips away as it seems to do.  I still see Emilia as a 4 year old.  Shelby and Josef are still very small.  Caelum ... not nearly 13 .... Ruby and Olivia are still babies.  Lily, is still the baby she was the last time I held her.  Abi ... holy cow, she can't be 16 .... she is still that little girl I met when she was 3.  OK, enough of this .... on to today!
I really wish the kids were here with us as we end the year. They are young enough to ring in the new year ..... Me, I think it is close enough now.  Happy new year.  Off to bed I go!

New Adventures in cheese making

I have wanted to learn crafts like cheese making for years.  Along my journey I have learned things like soapmaking, butter making, bread making etc.  All of these things I have learned on my own.  This summer I met someone who raises his own cows and I started buying milk from him.   We formed a friendship and talked a lot about cheese making.   He has been wonderful and blesses me with a lot of milk to play with. 
My first attempts at cheese making made me realize I needed a mentor.  I had no idea what I was doing wrong, but I ruined gallons and gallons of raw milk.  Finally a couple of weeks ago I was successful ... and my cheese turned out the way it was supposed to.  I think I finally understood some things I just didn't "get" before.  I have made 4 batches of hard cheese that seem to have turned out.  I was OK with the soft cheese ... it was easy and I "got it", but now I "get" the hard cheese!!!  Yippee!!!  I am so excited for the cheese to age and I am able to taste the fruits of my labors!  (I am still looking for a mentor)

Remember the nursery story about little miss muffet?  Curds and whey are exactly what I am working toward here.  In this photo the curds have formed are are waiting for me to cut them and get started with the cheese making



Here the curds have been cut into small chunks.  They still have a lot of the liquid in them so they will have to be pressed to get the liquid out of them

The curds have been placed in the mold in a cheese cloth.  I am pressing them with 50 pounds of weight.  I have to figure out how to place the weights better so I am not putting so many pieces on the board.
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And this is the final product.  Well, it is the cheese waiting to be aged.  I wish you could see the labels on the back two blocks.  Olivia wrote them for me.  I love reading her little girl printing.  She is so talented.  After they have formed a hard rind and dried out a bit they are waxed and left to age.  Hard cheese needs to age from a month or two up to years depending on the type of cheese.  I can't wait to try some of this stuff!!!!

There is a lot more to cheese making, but I am not trying to teach, only to share my new found hobby.  Most people have lots of questions, my best answer come help me make some.  That will likely answer a lot of questions.

I am so in love with my life.  I must say I would never be where I am without Phil to push me.  I was SO afraid to take this plunge and buy Pooh Acres.  What if I loose my job?  What if we can't make the payments?  What if the house in Omaha doesn't sell?  Guess what.  Phil lost his job 20 months ago, and we didn't sell the house in Omaha, and we have still managed to make the payments on this place.  I think it went ment to be!
On the weekends I love waking up to the roosters crowing .... During the week I have to rush and get ready for work, so I don't get to enjoy this time.  I went out this morning to let them out, and they were all so excited to get out and scratch.  Phil made a door into the lower garden so they are able to get in there and scratch and poop to their hearts content. 
Today I am going to start a new "adventure".  I have been wanting to make cheese for a long time, but the cost is prohivitive, and I didn't have time during the summer.  This summer I made friends with two guys who have a couple a cows.  I have been buying milk from them since we got out new  (and much cooler) refigerator.  I am not a milk drinker, but I love the by products.  Brad (the owner of the cows) is very supporative of my learning efforts and gives me a lot more milk than I pay for.  I have experimented with cottage cheese, keifer and a few simple cheeses. 
I told Phil I was going to build a cheese press this weekend.  I have the plans, I know what I need.  Yesterday he bought all of the componets and started putting it together for me.  We still have a few "bugs" to work out, but not many. 
I bought a gallon of milk on Thursday and Brad gave me 3 more.  I brought it into into the house a little while ago to skim the cream off (for butter) and then ........ I am off on my first big cheese making adventure.  Who knows, Pooh Acres could be a cheese adventure in a few years!!!

Hang the underwear in the middle

Every since I was a kid I was taught to hang your clothing around your unmentionables. You did not want a passerby or neighbor looking at them. When I was little we lived at then end of a 2 mile driveway so if someone came to see us, they were there to see US. I understand that hobo’s did come up to the house from the railroad tracks from time to time, so maybe that is why mom was so specific about it. When we moved “to town” we were still on an acreage with very few neighbors, but there was a road close to the house. I have always stuck to the same rule; strangers don’t need to see your underwear. Phil didn’t do a lot of laundry before he became unemployed 19 months ago. He has been doing the laundry a lot more lately, and it is funny to see that I have taught him that same paranoia.




I enjoy hanging my laundry out. Not for the energy saving reason (although that plays into it) but for the reality check. When I come home I leave the city and the craziness behind. I hang our clothing out for God to kiss and make smell wonderful. I love Saturday nights when I get clean sheets. I wash my mattress pad way to often just so I get that wonderful smell. Why would you use a dryer if you had the choice?



I have been working on making some money from Pooh Acres. I put the word out on the meat chickens, and had the sold in an hour. I made some harbanaro jelly and took samples to work. I sold all of that, and I am thinking about making one last batch from the end of the peppers. I have honey at my desk and sell a few jars every week. People tease me about someday being self sufficient. That would be wonderful if it would someday happen.



I came home tonight to find one of the chickens had an impacted egg (at least that is what I was told last time it happened). The last time I followed all the advice and “nursed” the chicken for a week giving her medicine and doing things that I never want to do to a chicken again. She was miserable and died anyway. I didn’t want to do that with this chicken. I told Phil I was going to butcher her tonight, she was slotted to be butchered this fall anyway. I am always sad to see one of our girls die, but I feel so good about providing our own food. She will be a great pot of chicken and dumplings tomorrow!

The journey continues

I never wanted to raise the fast growing chickens we have now. I had read enough about them to know they didn't really have a life. When they are day old chickens the look like a "normal" chicken but that soon changes. This chicken is intended to eat and sleep. Our chickens are 7 weeks old and are larger than the 14 week old chickens we butchered earlier this year. I feel so bad for them because they don't want to move. They are happy to simply sit and eat. We have an appointment to butcher next Saturday and I am hoping they will last that long. One we looked at this evening is having a difficult time walking, not that they WANT to walk much. There is a possibility some of them will actually break a leg before next weekend because they have grown so quickly.
This is not a way for any creature to live. I feel joy when I listen to my layers. I feel wonder when I see a chicken sitting on her eggs to hatch them. When I work in the garden I listen to the happy clucking of the hens, or the excited bragging when one of them has just laid an egg. This is normal and good.
The meat from these chickens is fantastic. Phil likes it because one chicken will fill an entire platter. Our heritage chickens tasted fantastic, but were kind of skinny!
I think we took on to much this year. We started spring with 125 new birds and now another 50 plus all the layer hens. We have not had a summer. Next year, I think we will downsize some. (But people LOVE the eggs).
Enough ranting for tonight. Off to bed I go.