I can't get over it. Where did summer go? We just finished up the coolest July on record and now it's fall? No fair!
It was a balmy 44 degrees F when I got up this morning. There's a fog as thick as pea soup outside.
I'm headed to work with an armload of clothes. I look like a bag lady. Working where I do, I have no idea how hot it will get or how chilly it will be when I get started, so I try to be prepared: extra jackets, shorts and tanktop in case it heats up in a hurry, etc.
Harvest is still going strong. Hubby picks pecks and bushels of goodies daily for me to process. He's been a huge help since I really don't have time to pick and process. Little Sis has been great as well; she's a pro bean breaker and loves to grind tomatoes in the food mill.
This week I'll be making hot sauce, wing sauce, tomatillo salsa, tomato salsa, habanero jelly, canning crushed tomatoes and freezing green beans and peppers. I think I have enough zucchini frozen but the plants are still producing. Not a bad deal...free chicken food.
I have at least two bushels of hot peppers in the kitchen just waiting to be frozen and at least three bushels of tomatoes on the porch to be processed, not counting whatever Hubby will bring in today. I'm not complaining. It will be nice this winter to have all of this garden fare.
For once, I'm sort of looking forward to winter. If all goes according to plan (insert evil laugh because you just can't hear those words without one), we'll be busting a$$ to get the firewood in, but hope to have it all done and, for once, not haul wood in the snow. We are planning to splurge and rent a log splitter once all the wood is cut and stacked. We've always done our firewood 'by hand' with an axe or maul, but having it all split is a tempting idea. There's nothing fun about coming home from work, shivering and dripping wet, only to find that no firewood is split, so it's back outside in the freezing rain to split some, ya know? Anyway, once that's done, we can enjoy winter, maybe work on the interior of the house a bit, and, if all goes well, I may get another quilt started.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Revisions?
We are considering revisions to our two year plan. The plan was to stay here two years, pay off our debts, except for the mortgage, finish the house and put it up for sale. We'd take the profit and simply pay for another place, either raw land or a home with acreage, preferably in the south, and live a self-sufficient life.
Looking at the market right now, we'd be hard pressed to get a decent price out of our home. But the market will recover.
Our house still has a lot of work to be done. Household repairs/improvements are on hold due to harvest and firewood (in addition to 'real' jobs).
DH and I were discussing our options. It's a bit overwhelming, trying to get the harvest put up, contemplate firewood, wonder how we will finish this or that home repair project, etc. One option is to stay put.
In a way, I like the sound of that. This house and property will be exactly what we want, once it is done. The garden will be set up exactly the way I want. I already know what grows best where. We've planted a grove of hazelnut trees and a small orchard, and we're working to rehab some very old apple trees on the property (heavy producers of ugly fruit). We've planted over 200 white pines, many along the property line for privacy.
Our stuff is already here. That's a plus. We love the nearby village and know a lot of the residents. Little Sis is hoping to volunteer at the library when she's old enough.
DH has rehabbed the hay field, so a few goats are in our near future.
The drawback, of course, is that I don't see a very early retirement if we stay. But right now, DH is pretty happy with his job, and the health insurance is a major plus. I love my job and it has its share of perks.
Moving south means a longer growing season and hopefully both of us being home, but it also means starting over with the house, the garden, the hayfield, etc. Exhausting even to think about at times.
So I guess the decision for the moment is 'wait and see'. The house will be finished, either way, and we'll still strive toward self-sufficiency on a daily basis. The market may boom and we may decide to put the place up for sale just to see if we can get what we want out of it. If not, we can stay put.
Either way, as long as we are together, I'm happy.
Looking at the market right now, we'd be hard pressed to get a decent price out of our home. But the market will recover.
Our house still has a lot of work to be done. Household repairs/improvements are on hold due to harvest and firewood (in addition to 'real' jobs).
DH and I were discussing our options. It's a bit overwhelming, trying to get the harvest put up, contemplate firewood, wonder how we will finish this or that home repair project, etc. One option is to stay put.
In a way, I like the sound of that. This house and property will be exactly what we want, once it is done. The garden will be set up exactly the way I want. I already know what grows best where. We've planted a grove of hazelnut trees and a small orchard, and we're working to rehab some very old apple trees on the property (heavy producers of ugly fruit). We've planted over 200 white pines, many along the property line for privacy.
Our stuff is already here. That's a plus. We love the nearby village and know a lot of the residents. Little Sis is hoping to volunteer at the library when she's old enough.
DH has rehabbed the hay field, so a few goats are in our near future.
The drawback, of course, is that I don't see a very early retirement if we stay. But right now, DH is pretty happy with his job, and the health insurance is a major plus. I love my job and it has its share of perks.
Moving south means a longer growing season and hopefully both of us being home, but it also means starting over with the house, the garden, the hayfield, etc. Exhausting even to think about at times.
So I guess the decision for the moment is 'wait and see'. The house will be finished, either way, and we'll still strive toward self-sufficiency on a daily basis. The market may boom and we may decide to put the place up for sale just to see if we can get what we want out of it. If not, we can stay put.
Either way, as long as we are together, I'm happy.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Mommy Wars, Revisited
For years I'd heard about the Mommy Wars: working moms vs stay at home moms. I didn't understand it. Moms do what they have to, or what they choose to. Live and let live. And then...
When I was a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM), the working moms I knew expected me, at a phone call, to drop what I was doing and watch their projectile spewing spawn, as daycare has a somewhat ridiculous rule about small children portraying the exorcist, complete with pea soup, not being able to attend.
These Working Moms assumed that I had nothing better to do. Never mind that if I really did have nothing better to do, it didn't mean I wanted their little possessed bundles of puke spreading their vile disease to my children, and I sure don't enjoy cleaning up vomit any more than your average daycare worker.
Keep in mind that I have never been the 'average housewife' or SAHM. If there even is such a thing. Most people think that because SAHM's don't' have 'real jobs', they do nothing but sit on the couch, munching bon bons, watching Dr. Phil and Oprah. Let me dispel this myth for you, at least from my own perspective:
When I was a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM), the working moms I knew expected me, at a phone call, to drop what I was doing and watch their projectile spewing spawn, as daycare has a somewhat ridiculous rule about small children portraying the exorcist, complete with pea soup, not being able to attend.
These Working Moms assumed that I had nothing better to do. Never mind that if I really did have nothing better to do, it didn't mean I wanted their little possessed bundles of puke spreading their vile disease to my children, and I sure don't enjoy cleaning up vomit any more than your average daycare worker.
Keep in mind that I have never been the 'average housewife' or SAHM. If there even is such a thing. Most people think that because SAHM's don't' have 'real jobs', they do nothing but sit on the couch, munching bon bons, watching Dr. Phil and Oprah. Let me dispel this myth for you, at least from my own perspective:
- I do not own a couch.
- I have never made or purchased bon bons and only eat them at my MIL's because hers are to die for.
- I think Dr Phil is a pompous blowhard and why the heck does Oprah need to be on the cover of her own magazine every single issue? Oh, and I don't even pick up any channels to watch said mind garbage.
I've always had a major project of one sort or another ongoing. This is my third fixer-upper, so there's always been some sort of remodeling in my life. Not to mention gardening, landscaping, blah blah blah, you get the idea.
Fast forward to now, when I am a Working Mom (at least part time), and also a Homesteading/Farmsteading/Striving Toward Self-Sufficiency/Homeschooling Mom. Picture me in conversation with the Stay At Home Moms that I never thought existed: those with enough free time to actually sit on the couch, bon bons or no, watching said drivel on the tube. SAHM's with grown kids, or at least no kids younger than Little Sis, yammering on about some 'project' they would like me to become involved with, or some hobby that I should pick up. (Hah-Be? I know not this word.) Um, yeah, I'll get right on that, in between work, gardening, canning, freezing, blanching, firewood, and the mundane: laundry, cooking, cleaning, bathing. Who needs sleep, right?
I'm starting to see how the Mommy Wars began. If I take prisoners, can I make them haul firewood, or is that against the Geneva Convention?
Thursday, August 13, 2009
What is really important
Many of us are so caught up in making a living that we forget to make a life.
For me, lately, it seems that my day rushes by while I watch, helpless to slow things down.
We enjoy our homesteading lifestyle, attempting to become more self-sufficient with each passing season. This is not something we want to give up.
However, the 'real' world demands that we have money, which means we need jobs, at least for now. Living more like other people, and less like homesteaders, would only mean we needed more money, and therefore have to work more hours.
Homesteading is something we can do together, as a family. Working at a 'real job', well, not so much.
We have our two year plan. But I want to go now. Right now. This very minute. I don't want to spend another day missing DH while one of us is working.
So I wonder what I can give up to move things along. I plan and budget and worry, watching precious moments fly by, time spent elsewhere.
Recent events have shown me that life is short, and every moment is a precious jewel that should be polished and admired, and cannot be recovered once spent. I see families argue over the inane, put off spending time together, never appreciating that this moment, right now, is the one that matters. Their time is spent rushing from one mundane thing to the next, buying the right clothes and the right cars, not realizing that those things, those useless, ugly things, will be left behind, tossed aside to the thrift shops or auction, when they are gone.
I don't want any of that. No fancy cars, no showcase homes, no expensive clothes. I want my family. I want what is really important. And I want it now.
For me, lately, it seems that my day rushes by while I watch, helpless to slow things down.
We enjoy our homesteading lifestyle, attempting to become more self-sufficient with each passing season. This is not something we want to give up.
However, the 'real' world demands that we have money, which means we need jobs, at least for now. Living more like other people, and less like homesteaders, would only mean we needed more money, and therefore have to work more hours.
Homesteading is something we can do together, as a family. Working at a 'real job', well, not so much.
We have our two year plan. But I want to go now. Right now. This very minute. I don't want to spend another day missing DH while one of us is working.
So I wonder what I can give up to move things along. I plan and budget and worry, watching precious moments fly by, time spent elsewhere.
Recent events have shown me that life is short, and every moment is a precious jewel that should be polished and admired, and cannot be recovered once spent. I see families argue over the inane, put off spending time together, never appreciating that this moment, right now, is the one that matters. Their time is spent rushing from one mundane thing to the next, buying the right clothes and the right cars, not realizing that those things, those useless, ugly things, will be left behind, tossed aside to the thrift shops or auction, when they are gone.
I don't want any of that. No fancy cars, no showcase homes, no expensive clothes. I want my family. I want what is really important. And I want it now.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Country Wife dies of exhaustion
Well, not really, but I kind of feel like it. And before anyone says, "I told you so," let me say that it is NOT farm stuff that is wearing me out. It's all the appointments this past week. I have been on the interstate for more hours this week than I usually am in a year. I have been to Cleveland, to Columbus, to...where the hell am I?
There's so much to be done here, and all this running is sucking up valuable canning/blanching/freezing/harvesting time. Hopefully, I can put an end to all this chaos and get some stuff done at home. But no...we have fair this week. Well, that only sucks up part of a day for us, thank goodness. But still...oh, and then there's the dental appointment, riding lessons, etc.
I need a nap.
There's so much to be done here, and all this running is sucking up valuable canning/blanching/freezing/harvesting time. Hopefully, I can put an end to all this chaos and get some stuff done at home. But no...we have fair this week. Well, that only sucks up part of a day for us, thank goodness. But still...oh, and then there's the dental appointment, riding lessons, etc.
I need a nap.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Harvesting chickens
Remember our first hatch? We finally got around to harvesting the two big hens, leaving the two bantams to fill out our bantam flock.
If you have never raised your own meat, you don't know what you are missing. Sure, it's messy and a little gross. But you know how it was raised and processed. You know the animal was healthy. And you know it wasn't rolled around in sewage before it was popped onto the store shelf. (Ew!)
We did all of the processing ourselves. I'm kind of glad the first hatch was small, since we really didn't know what we were doing. But, after the first chicken, the second was easy. Well, other than me dodging the headless chicken. That was hysterical.
I do not understand raising your own chicks only to cart them off somewhere else to be butchered. How do you even know those are your chickens you are bringing back home, all tidy and wrapped?
Anyway, after the processing, we put the chicken in the freezer. Then last weekend I made time to cook a decent meal. We had fried chicken (our own!), green beans, mashed potatoes, made from scratch biscuits, and blackberry cobbler. The beans, potatoes, blackberries and chicken were all raised here. It was all amazing. There's nothing like raising your own food.
Our next harvest will be 14 chickens, then another 25 after that. These aren't broilers, so they look kind of small when we butcher them, but there's a surprising amount of meat on these scrawny looking birds.
I am considering ordering 25 broilers, just to compare. But that, most likely, will have to wait till next spring.
If you have never raised your own meat, you don't know what you are missing. Sure, it's messy and a little gross. But you know how it was raised and processed. You know the animal was healthy. And you know it wasn't rolled around in sewage before it was popped onto the store shelf. (Ew!)
We did all of the processing ourselves. I'm kind of glad the first hatch was small, since we really didn't know what we were doing. But, after the first chicken, the second was easy. Well, other than me dodging the headless chicken. That was hysterical.
I do not understand raising your own chicks only to cart them off somewhere else to be butchered. How do you even know those are your chickens you are bringing back home, all tidy and wrapped?
Anyway, after the processing, we put the chicken in the freezer. Then last weekend I made time to cook a decent meal. We had fried chicken (our own!), green beans, mashed potatoes, made from scratch biscuits, and blackberry cobbler. The beans, potatoes, blackberries and chicken were all raised here. It was all amazing. There's nothing like raising your own food.
Our next harvest will be 14 chickens, then another 25 after that. These aren't broilers, so they look kind of small when we butcher them, but there's a surprising amount of meat on these scrawny looking birds.
I am considering ordering 25 broilers, just to compare. But that, most likely, will have to wait till next spring.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Fair time already?
What??!! How can it be fair time already??
And who came up with this whole fair thing, anyway? Supposedly, it's for farmers to display their produce, animals, etc, win a blue ribbon or whatever.
There are families in our 4H group that camp the entire week at the fairgrounds. *shrug* I don't get it.
Sure, it makes sense if you are keeping big animals at the fair and you need to be handy to look after them. But who has time for all this??
The garden is quickly cranking up to full blast production. That means tons of picking and pickling. This stuff isn't going to wait for the fair to be over.
I really just don't understand. Won't people with bigger farms be even busier than I am with my teensy little farmstead?
And another thing I don't get: who the heck pays $150 for a rabbit?? Yep, they'll go for that much and even more at the 4H auction. Not quite fair to the kid that raised a steer and gets the same amount as the kid who raised the rabbit. Actually, this worked out to be a valuable economics lesson for Little Sis. She saw her friends' families spend quite a bit, all totaled, to rent a camping space, buy fair food on a daily basis, drive back and forth to work from the fair grounds (last year when gas was over $4 a gallon), drive all the way back home for laundry or stop at the laundromat...you get the idea. These people can easily spend more than the kid will make, even for a rabbit.
I suppose the whole thing could be a fun family vacation, if it's what you are into. Me, I just don't get it.
But...we'll do our duty and help set up our 4H booth, then spend a day at the fair looking at the animals. No, we don't do rides. Those things are held together with spit and duct tape.
I sure don't sound like much fun, do I? lol
And who came up with this whole fair thing, anyway? Supposedly, it's for farmers to display their produce, animals, etc, win a blue ribbon or whatever.
There are families in our 4H group that camp the entire week at the fairgrounds. *shrug* I don't get it.
Sure, it makes sense if you are keeping big animals at the fair and you need to be handy to look after them. But who has time for all this??
The garden is quickly cranking up to full blast production. That means tons of picking and pickling. This stuff isn't going to wait for the fair to be over.
I really just don't understand. Won't people with bigger farms be even busier than I am with my teensy little farmstead?
And another thing I don't get: who the heck pays $150 for a rabbit?? Yep, they'll go for that much and even more at the 4H auction. Not quite fair to the kid that raised a steer and gets the same amount as the kid who raised the rabbit. Actually, this worked out to be a valuable economics lesson for Little Sis. She saw her friends' families spend quite a bit, all totaled, to rent a camping space, buy fair food on a daily basis, drive back and forth to work from the fair grounds (last year when gas was over $4 a gallon), drive all the way back home for laundry or stop at the laundromat...you get the idea. These people can easily spend more than the kid will make, even for a rabbit.
I suppose the whole thing could be a fun family vacation, if it's what you are into. Me, I just don't get it.
But...we'll do our duty and help set up our 4H booth, then spend a day at the fair looking at the animals. No, we don't do rides. Those things are held together with spit and duct tape.
I sure don't sound like much fun, do I? lol
Sunday, August 2, 2009
This week's harvest
See the lonely ripe tomato hiding in the beans? Those green tomato looking things are tomatillos. There's a milk crate full of mild peppers...the hot ones refused to pose for photo. I blanched and froze 30 quarts of zucchini today. Not even half done. Where can I apply for some extra hours in the day?
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