Something “fun”

I have neglected this blog, I have. I know.

And then there is the usual excuse…”I have been soooooo busy!”

But I have been.  And that’s the TRUTH.

I’ve been doing A LOT of very physical work lately, working on the attic here at the house.  Hauling wood, screwing it into place with the drill, moving boxes around, climbing in and out of the attic WITHOUT using a ladder (it’s a bit tricky, takes some skill..) …for the past two days, and my arms are SO SORE …so, here is something fluffy and easy on this tired mind and body hehehe…

Homesteading Meme

1. Do you pasturize your milk? 

Nope, it’s Goat’s Milk and we drink it RAW…sometimes warm even, just minutes old from the goat…I like putting it in my morning coffee when it is still warm…mmmmmm..

2.  Are your hens laying? 

YUP!  about 12-15 eggs a day right now…I eat at least 3-4 a day.  I like em’ pickled!

3.  Do you still use your clothesline in winter?

Sure, if it ain’t snowing…they may freeze first, but they still get dry  lol…

4. When is the last time you left your homestead?

Saturday to attend The Farmer’s Market in Lewisburg and to buy lumber from the hardware store….although I’ll easily go 2 weeks or longer without leaving, especially in winter…there’s more fun things to do in summer though so I leave more often.

5. How many dairy animals do you have?

I currently have 5 goats…3 does (2 in milk, 1 pregnant) 1 buck and 1 kid

6. Laundry soap-homemade or store bought?

Homemade bacon grease/crisco soap grated into the machine with about 1/2 cup of baking soda

7. How much canning did you do this year?

Not much yet.  Some dill pickles, some pickled eggs….canned a bunch of pumpkin and pumpkin butter last fall though…

8. What type of meat is in your winter store? Home grown or store bought?

Grass fed beef from our beef farmer friends, homegrown chicken and deer when Nathan can get it…looking forward to venison when hunting season starts! Slaughtered a newborn goat recently…that meat was tender and tasty 🙂

9. Plumbing- outdoor or indoor?

We have both, plan to build an outdoor shower in the not too distant future too!

10. How often do you tend to the animals each day?

Well!  In the morning it’s feed laying hens food scraps and collect eggs.  Move chicken tractor with meat chickens in it to fresh grass and give fresh water.  Feed grain and milk the goats and give fresh hay and water.

In the evening I give ALL chickens a bit of feed before they head to bed.  Then feed grain and milk the goats again, give them fresh hay and water.

Next day: Reboot and Repeat 😀

11. Chickens-free range or chicken house?

My laying hens are 100% free range…makes for the most nutritious eggs.  I have meat chickens in a chicken tractor that gets moved to fresh grass everyday.

12. Chickens- butcher yourself or have it done?

Myself.  Paying someone else to do it would sorta defeat the purpose would it not??

13. How big was your garden this year? 

BIG.  Our biggest one ever! already harvestin’ peppers (hot and sweet), cucumbers, and zucchini pretty regularly…still have plenty of lettuce for salads too…I eat a HUGE salad nearly everyday…

14. How many acres is your homestead?

9 acres.  7 of that is woods though…

15. Do you rise with the chickens?

I sometimes hear the rooster crowing at 3:30AM!  So that would be a NO…

16. Last time you made a new quilt?

Never made one.  But my mom makes beautiful quilts, someday I would like for her to teach me!

17. Last time you did any sewing?

I don’t do much sewing usually…sewed a button onto a shirt about a week – ten days ago…

18. How many wild berries did you pick this summer?

LOTS!  We are currently picking wild black raspberries and the black berries are starting to be ready….also have domesticated blueberries…

19. What kind of jelly or jam did you make this year?

None yet.  But late summer is grape jam time! 12-14 pints usually…

20. What wild animals did you kill this year(for food)?

Does possum count??  It wasn’t for food per se …but chicken protection, then we ate it cause we’d never had possum before…  ’twasn’t half-bad…

21. Washing laundry- by hand or machine?

MACHINE.  I’ve gotta family of seven! yeah, umm I don’t want to even want to think about doing laundry by hand lol…

22. Is using the computer a waste of time for you?

Not usually….I only have time enough to use it for about 1-3 hours a day and I use it mostly for research for homeschoolin’ the kiddos and downloading stuff (videos, audio files etc.) that interest me…I am AWAY from the computer for most of the day…

23. Most hated chore on your homestead?

Dishes.  I LOVE to cook…just HATE that cleaning up part is all…ick..

24. Favorite chore on your homestead?

Milking.  One of the FEW times during the day that I get to be ALONE….it’s quiet too, I get a lot of thinking and praying done while I am milking 🙂

25. How do you plow your garden?

The old old fashioned way…all by hand…with a shovel, yeah…it’s fun too, and it makes you STRONG 😎

26. How often do you hoe your garden?

I mostly hand weed, but sometimes resort to a hoe if the area needing weeded is very large…I weed 1-2x a week, but not usually with a hoe…

27. Do wild animals raid your garden?

Fortunately not very often.  Sometimes we have issues with moles but the cats do a very good job of keeping that under control…sometimes a chicken will get in there and tear things up, that chicken then ends up as dinner MWAHAHAHAHA! 😈

28. Favorite homestead pastime?

Puttering around the garden in the evening coolness of summertime….taking hikes in the woods is a very close second!

29. Do you like being a homesteader?

Oh yes!  It is HARD work, it requires discipline and consistency to get the most from it, two traits that most people don’t possess nowadays unfortunately.  people have this “dream” of “living in the country” but it’s never based in reality…the work is HARD but the body is adaptable, the work will make you stronger and satisfaction will ooze from your every pore if you don’t chicken out first…

30. When was the last time you purchased any food item from outside of your homestead?

Saturday.  8 pounds of Grass fed ground chuck from our beef farmer friends.

31. How close is your nearest neighbor?

About 1/4 mile.

32. What color is your barn?

Don’t have a barn…the goat shed is yellow with a dark green metal roof though…

33. How many of your animals are bred at this time?

I have 1 doe still pregnant and 1 broody hen who would set some eggs if I’d just let her…but I won’t…

34. What were the last three animal births on your homestead?

chicks, kittens, goat kids 😀

35. How much TV do you watch at your homestead?

not much…we don’t have cable/satellite TV…but we do have Netflix which we can stream over Nathan’s Droid X2 when we want to.  We’re more gamers than watchers around here, if I want some entertainment I’d rather play a video game or read a book rather than watch something…

36. Can you make good bread from scratch?

Oh yes!~Check out my series: Our Daily Bread

37. Are you afraid to go outside at night?

No. Should I be?? 😕

38. How do you define homesteader?

One who lives off the land as simply and sustain-ably as possible.

39. Were you raised in the city or country?

ummm well, I was raised in central Maryland…I would consider it to be suburbia but according to Marylander standards it would be “country” sorta…more rural than most, but not nearly rural enough…which is why we moved to West Virginia!  I love it here and could not ever imagine living anywhere else…it’s perfect for me and sooooo beautiful 😀

Waste Not, Want Not

Ways to use common food waste…not one crumb left behind 😉

(most all food waste goes to the chickens…and all other waste, including animal waste, gets composted.)

• Egg Shells – I save them in a big tupperware container in the fridge and when it is full I pour them all out onto a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 300F for about 30 minutes.  Once they have cooled I then dump the whole thing outside on the ground near the chicken coop and have the kids crush them all under foot, the chickens will then eat the baked shells (it takes a few days for them to eat them all) and recycle the calcium in the shells to make new shells for new eggs.
• Banana Peels – I buy organic bananas and feed the peels to the goats, they love them!  Rabbits also love banana peels and chickens will eat them too if you cut them up first.
• Used Coffee Grounds – When I first tried feeding this to the chickens they didn’t quite know what to make of it, but then I think they figured out that it gives them energy!  Now when I give them food scraps the coffee grounds are gone first!  Even chickens have the capacity to love caffeine….I wonder if it makes the eggs caffeinated though?? 😉  I also feed them the used tea from inside the tea bags, just cut the top off and flip the tea bad inside out.  You can also add used coffee grounds directly to the garden, beets especially love coffee grounds.
• Potato Peels – Goats and Rabbits don’t like em’ but Chickens will eat them, but only if you give them to them when they are really hungry…I tend to give food scraps (chickens are omnivores so you can give them any ol’ thing, just like a dog)  in the morning when they are hungriest, then they forage all day and then I give them a bit of feed before they go to bed at night.
• Citrus Peels – I make homemade citrus cleaner out of them!  My goats will also eat them 🙂
• Old Used Frying Oil – We usually use peanut oil or refined coconut oil for deep frying foods and when the oil starts getting yucky and needing replaced, I take a couple of scoops of chicken feed (layer crumbles, this won’t work with pellets) and put it in the oil and let it sit until the oil is all soaked up by the feed and then I give it to the chickens. I do the same thing with leftover whey from cheese-making too.
• Chicken Guts – When I slaughter a chicken, I throw the guts into the creek, downstream from the house, the crayfish love em’! I  Also plan to use chicken guts to bait the crayfish trap we bought recently…
• A Poor Crop – Goats and Rabbits love ANY green thing…when I have a crop that has been bug eatin’ beyond repair or a crop that is diseased or it just ain’t living up to my standards, I tear ALL of it out and feed it to the goats.  Goats also love  corn stalks, pea vines, bean plants…any green thing!  When my herbs get to tall and big and out of control, I cut them severely back and make an “herb salad” for the goats…rabbits love “herb salad” too!
• Leftover Chicken Carcass – After we have eaten a chicken and I have picked off all the meat and used the bones for broth, simmering the broth until the bones are soft and falling apart, I then take these soft bones and mash them up a bit and feed them to the cats…dogs like it too!  I also do this with bones from our grass fed beef farmer friends or from goats that we have slaughtered.
• Leftover Milk – When 2 does are in milk it equals out to about 1 gallon of milk a day produced.  At the end of the day, if I’m not making cheese, I give whatever milk is leftover to the cats.  It’s no biggie since I know I’m just going to have another whole gallon to use tomorrow!  This saves money on cat food since our raw goat’s milk is A LOT cheaper to produce than it is to buy cat food…and it’s healthier for the cats too!
• Children’s Food Crumbs – At the end of the day, after dinner, I sweep up three meals of accumulated food crumbs off the floor under the dining table and dump it outside by the chicken coop…the chickens gobble it up in about 10 seconds!
• Leftover Bits of Stuff in Bottles – When I have just a tiny bit of mustard left, or just a tiny bit of ketchup left, or just a tiny bit of any condiment left (except mayo, we make our own)….I save it in the fridge to use in homemade chili, or baked beans, or tacos or anything that is heavily seasoned.  I just add a bit of water to the bottle, shake it up real good and then dump the “condiment water” into whatever I am making that will be complimented by that taste.  Yeah, folks I am THAT cheap! LOL 😀

If you’ve any good tips to avoid food waste please share in the comments section…I’m always looking for new ideas and would love to hear them!

The Health Benefits Of Tobacco

A Virginia Gold Tobacco Plant in the garden…almost ready for harvest!

Now, I know what you are thinking, “What?!  What in the world is she talking about??  Tobacco Kills!”

And I am asking you, for 5 seconds, to just step outside your mind control and consider what I am about to tell you with an open and objective mind.  First of all, lemme get one thing straight, I am NOT talking about cigarettes (which contains HUNDREDS of additives that are NOT healthy in any way shape or form) or any commercially grown tobacco (grown using pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers etc.)…so you can scratch those things off the list right from the get-go.

What I AM talking about is Tobacco as a plant, for that is what it is.  It is NOT a drug!  Tylenol is a DRUG! Advil is a DRUG! Dimetapp is a DRUG!  Tobacco is a plant, created by God, for each individual person to utilize as they see fit…for that is the responsibility that HE has given us as human beings on this planet.  To have DOMINION (sphere of influence, control, sovereignty) over ALL Creation, NOT the government, but each indiviual person as a sovereign human being.

For over three hundred years Tobacco has been the backbone of our American Economy and there is nothing wrong with that.  The people who malign tobacco have a hidden agenda, they want to control the population through FEAR…fear of tobacco and the ostracization and shaming of those who continue to use it (the divide and conquer tactic, always having people fighting amongst themselves over stupid things that have no actual basis in REAL reality) being one way, and also downplaying and rewriting our history as being backwards and wrong because America has always been a tobacco-growing and tobacco-loving country.  To vilify Tobacco is, at it’s heart, part of a scheme to vilify Traditional Constitutional America and ALL that it stands for, including the TRUTH contained within Our Constitution that Our Rights come to us from Our Creator and NOT from the government…but, I digress…

We are growing tobacco for the first time this year and it is quite a beautiful and very easy to grow plant.  When the plants were still quite young we harvested a few leaves from each one and air dried them in the traditional method, by hanging them upside down in a WARM (80-90F) well-ventilated room until the leaves dry and turn brown, if the leaves turn yellow it means that the temperature wasn’t warm enough and it won’t taste good.  We then vaporized it using a Vapor Genie which we also use for other herbs such mullien, sage or catnip.  I have weak lungs from a bad case of bronchitis that I got as a young teen and often treat recurring issues (such as asthma) by inhaling the water vapor of herbs that are beneficial to the lungs.

I was very surprised by how pronounced the taste was!  Even in young leaves!  We’re growing the original heirloom Virginia Gold Tobacco that made this country very rich….and it is VERY rich-tasting!  But mild also, with no harshness at all.  Really very good stuff and I am excited for when ALL of our plants reach full maturity! 😀

According to the well-researched book “The Health Benefits of Tobacco” written by: Dr. William Douglass (he also wrote “The Milk Book”…now called “The Raw Truth About Milk” which I read several years ago), from the studies he has conducted and read, the health benefits of tobacco are numerous and plentiful…even when smoking cigarettes!  But only if you limit it to 6-10 cigarettes a day, more than 10 and the toxic additives and the smoke from the burning paper outweigh the beneficial effects.

Here is a partial list of the beneficial effects of tobacco usage:

*50% less cancer in general (those who inhale cigarette smoke have an increased risk of lung cancer, but many other types of cancer risk are actually reduced quite drastically by smoking).

*Even in the case of lung cancer, Japanese men, who are twice as likely to smoke as American men, not only live longer but also, remarkably, have lower rates of lung cancer than Americans. (this is mostly due to the different methods of curing…Americans use flue-curing which speeds up the process but creates more sugar in the leaf…The Japanese use the traditional air-drying method that I mentioned earlier in this post.)

*–In fact, there’s a stronger relation between medical radiation, such as X-rays and lung cancer, than there is between smoking and lung cancer.

*Smokers have 50% less Alzheimer’s disease.

*Smokers have 50% less Parkinson’s disease.

*Smokers have 50% less prostate cancer.

*Smokers have 50% less uterine cancer (or endometrial cancer).

*Smokers have 50% less ulcerative colitis.

*Smokers have 30% less colon cancer.

*Smokers have 5 times less osteoarthritis.

*One study of 300 women showed that those smoking a pack a day for four years had a 54% decrease in breast cancer over those who did not smoke at all.

*Thyroid cancer is significantly less common in women who smoke.

*Moderate smokers have less gum recession than nonsmokers.  Smokers are actually at lower risk from gum disease than non-smokers.

*Nicotine prior to major surgery reduces memory loss due to that surgery.

*Nicotine stopped the growth of antibiotic resistant tuberculosis in laboratory tests, even in small amounts.

*Smoking lowers rates of sarcoidosis and allergic alveolitis (both of these are lung disorders).

*Smokers have less acne.

*Smokers suffer less obesity.

*Tourette’s syndrome improved within 24 hours while wearing a nicotine patch.

*Attention Deficit Disorder patients showed dramatic improvements  with nicotine.

*Smoking has been shown to stimulate alertness, dexterity, and cognitive capacity (Which might be one reason why the Synod of Dordrecht, which met in the Netherlands in 1618-1619 to discuss the doctrines of Calvinism, allegedly gave free cigars and beer to all the commissioners during their deliberations! LOL).

*Smoking can also counter both depression and excitability.

*Smoking inhibits blood clotting, thereby dissolving harmful clots in the arteries and relieving ischemic heart disease.  Smokers also have a much better chance to survive, heal, and do well after heart angioplastic surgery.

*Nicotine produces new blood vessel growth around blocked arteries.

*Smoking by women during pregnancy has been shown to significantly decrease the risk of high blood pressure, eclampsia, Down’s syndrome, and many other conditions related to pregnancy.

*Smoking by men was shown to cause a lowering of cholesterol.

*Children of smokers have a lower incidence of asthma.

*Study after study failed to find any consistent, positive correlation between smoking and musculoskeletal birth defects.  In fact, many studies showed a negative correlation – that is, smoking during pregnancy could result in fewer defects than not smoking.

*Studies have shown that nicotine acts as an analgesic, or painkiller, in humans.

So the next time you see a smoker huddled in the corner at his designated smoking spot don’t look at him disapprovingly, with your nose up in the air, thinking that you as a non-smoker are somehow better.  And ladies who have husbands who smoke, stop nagging at him to quit..his habit is mostly harmless and may even be doing some good!  He needs a partner who loves and supports him, “bad habits” and all, the whole world may be against him as a smoker but the last thing he needs is for his wife to be against him for something so trivial and so meaningless.

I find it very interesting that the rate of almost ALL forms of cancer are cut in HALF through tobacco usage, even smoking cigarettes!  Kind of makes you wonder what their true intent is in maligning tobacco, could it be that they want us to get cancer…to get cancer and then be dependent on them and their expensive pharmaceutical poisons to “cure” it, and in the process fleecing the public of it’s every penny…cancer treatment is NOT cheap folks!  They want you dependent upon them and their system (man’s way) of doing things.  When God has given us plants for food and for healing (Ezekiel 47:12).

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars (such as those who say it is a sin to smoke, for example) seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. 
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude.” ~1 Timothy 4:1-4

It’s not such a bad little plant afterall….

Miscellany

First and foremost the garden is doing awesome!  Plenty of corn popping up everywhere, summer squash plants, melons, cucumbers etc.  The peaches are coming along great and the apples have gotten a lot of new growth on them… we’re harvesting sugar snap peas and shell peas, wild and domestic strawberries, blueberries and fava beans along with the usual lettuce and other salad veggies…this is our first year growing fava beans and they are GOOOOOOD…they’re a little bit tedious to prepare though cause first you must remove the bean from the pod then you must parboil the bean to remove a “skin” that it is encased in and then I sauted the beans in some olive oil with a bit of minced garlic and salt and pepper.  But the plant is very hardy and easy to grow and the beans are so tasty and so tender that the extra work is well worth it!

Our other doe, Marissa (a Saanen) gave birth yesterday….she caught me by surprise!  She had twin boys and gave birth to them earlier than expected, I think because one of the twins was dead.  And the other one got to be last night’s dinner, quite tender and tasty it was!  It was the first time I have prepared newborn goat, the last buckling given birth to here on the homestead we raised until he was about 8 weeks old and then killed him and ate him.  This time, doing it from the outset, was easier on me as well as the goat because she (and I) didn’t even have a chance to get attached.  Right after he was born, before he even had a chance to stand, I whisked him away and did the “dirty deed” and when I came back I thought for sure Marissa would be looking for him but she didn’t even seem to notice…just standing there eating hay.  As of this morning, she still doesn’t seem to notice or care, just being her normal loveable self.  I cleaned her and milked her right after the birth since her bag was looking very full, got about a pint of nutrient and anti-body rich colostrum which I combined with other goat milk, coconut milk and eggs in a chocolate smoothie which eveybody had a glass of…trying to take advantage of the rare and precious colostrum 🙂

The weather here has been sooooo nice!  So absolutely perfect I almost feel like I’m living in a fairy tale..it was HOT there for a little while, last weekend when my parents were visiting here… with temperatures in the 80’s but then it cooled down and we’ve had several days with temperatures in the low 70’s during the day and low 50’s at night.  PERFECT for doing hard physical labor on The Land.  So, I’ve been taking advantage of this and spending most of my days outside digging in the garden and getting the summer planting done, and still working on clearing out certain parts of The Land.  Clearing out trash leftover from the previous owner (I can’t believe the way in which some people just throw their trash around their property, not seeming to care at all!)….Chopping away at brambles and saplings and having bonfires.  The kids work right along with me, taking breaks here and there to sword fight with sticks or splash around in the creek or shoot each other with water guns…and Charity’s favorite place right now is the sandbox, she loves squishing the ants that climb in and out of it…I love this time of the year! 😀

I’ve lost 7 pounds in the past 2 weeks.  All this gorgeous weather which makes it so easy to be active, combined with all the delicious food we’re growing and eating , has made it very easy to lose weight…it’s just sort of falling off on it’s own without much thought or effort on my part.  My size 14 jeans are feeling loose on me, so I’ve been thinking about digging out my size 12 jeans to see if I can squeeze my butt into them yet….not much longer now…

And last, but certainly not least, Nathan has been very busy working on a new video series for his YouTube Channel and he finished the first installment last night!  It’s about The Rule Of Man VS. The Rule of God and it’s very well done….for those of you who are a bit scared off by the subliminal stuff I assure that this series is completely different and well worth your time…