Monday Meanderings is a way to use your blog to keep yourself accountable for the week ahead. I tend to to be more diligent if I’m sticking it out here for all to see. Simply pick 5 things each week that will better help you to tackle the week ahead. Click here to read an explanation of the guidelines.
Bible Study/Devotions~ *Hubby and I are interested in doing a weekly bible study together. We just got a new study guide on Romans and this is the week to start!
*continue prayer journal
Must Do ~
*go through the boxes in my room and get them out into one of the sheds.
*get the two tubs in the living room gone through and also put into one of the sheds.
*oil all of the wood in the house
*take several homeschooling materials that are reproducible to the library and make copies.
*make Ms. Banana’s birthday gift
*weed the front gardens
*fresh bedding for the chicken/duck house
*make a birthday cake for Ms. Banana
*prepare for company this weekend
Zone ~
*A good scrubbing of the master bathroom (I know it is the same as last week but I just got so overloaded that I just got to do a wipe down. This week it will get scrubbed!)
Train Them Up ~
*The kids and I have been talking about a new birthday idea. For each birthday of theirs we are going to buy a book for the library and donate it. The libraries seem to have plenty of worldly books so we are interested them in aquiring a few more Godly ones.
Menu Planning ~
*I have already planned my menu for the week- Here it is.
*I need to buy a Sunday paper for coupons as Monday the 8th is my grocery shopping day.
I am sitting here on the sofa taking a few moments break and watching my newest tv hero- Paula Deen @ Paula’s Home Cooking. (She comes on the food network at 1pm and 4pm weekdays) I am very new to the food network and I just love her cooking, her attitude and her passion for Elvis. Who doesn’t love Elvis?! She is making chocolate chip cookies, chocolate fudge pie and chocolate suflee. Gayle, doesn’t that just make you want to swoon!!??
Anyway, time for the homestead. We have had a hard loss this week on our little farmlette. Our male mallard duck (Studly Duck) is gone. He was there on Tuesday. We locked the chickens and ducks up that night. When Short Man (8) let them out Wed. morning Studly Duck was not there. I don’t know if he just didn’t make it into the chicken house the previous night or what. He was my only male duck. We still have Daisy and Webigail but no more Studly Duck. I have 3 eggs in the incubator right now. They are about 2 weeks away from hatching. I had 4 but one went kaput on me and I chunked it last night. Chances are pretty good that there is a male in there. We shall see.
We have had 18 chickens now survive to teenagerhood. I have identified several as roosters but we appear to have a good number of hens. They will start laying in about 2 months. This spring I will gather and incubate about 45-50 eggs. Once those have hatched I am going to collect the duck eggs as well and incubate however many I can get.
Chickens are not bright. Mr. Muscles (dh) made a great nesting box for me. It came out better than I imagined. Here it is.
See the bottom right box? Somehow 8 chickens keep piling in there. I went down the other night to close them up and decided to check on them. I noticed they were all on the nesting box and not on the roosts. I started pulling chickens out of that one box. At first I thought there was just 2 or 3 in there but the more I pulled out the more surprised I was. In all there were 8!! There are 4 roosts and 7 other boxes in that chicken house. Sheesh!
I am off for now. It has been a hugely productive day and I want to keep that streak alive. :) The tomato plants are absolutely covered and they need to be picked. I have to save the seeds out of the 2 upper garden ones. One of them is an heirloom from Germany. I am really excited about saving that one. Until later.
Today is the first day the our Buff Orpintons have been let out to freerange. They are now 8 -9 weeks old and looking like mini chickens. They are such a beautiful gold color! Another 3-4 months before they start laying but the Dominikers and the Aracaunas should start laying any time now. The rare chick that came with my order is a Blue Andalusion and it is a rooster. I can’t wait to see if full grown. A Blue Andalusion and Buff Orpington would be a pretty interesting combination. Hopefully when I start incubating next year I will get a few of the mixed eggs to hatch out. We have 2 Dominikers- one hen, one rooster. We have 2 aracauns- one hen, one rooster. We have 22 or so Buff Orpingtons. In the next couple weeks they will really start showing whether they are hens or roosters. We only need 2 or 3 roosters. The rest will go in the freezer. Now I just have to decide which ones to keep. I will post a few pictures later. All for now!
All for His glory, ~Rhen
Update~ It was a successful chicken day! We did not lose any of the young chickens. They all made it back inside the chicken house to roost for the night. My older chickens were so happy to get back out and freerange. The ducks hit their pond first thing and I had to get them out of it tonight so I could lock everybody up. :) All is good on the homestead!
I just love living in the country. I have two very close friends who are city girls through and through. One actually lives in the city (smack dab in the middle of a big city) and one who dreams of living in the city all the while living in the country with her hubby who is all country at heart. Poor chick!
I walk out on the side porch this morning to enjoy the view of the mountains and no neighbors and down the hill a little ways by the chicken house are 2 doe and a fawn. The fawn is just beautiful. She is delicate, a rich brown and bright white spots. I was talking on the phone (surprise, surprise) when I realized they were there. They say me as well. They didn’t even give me one ounce of consideration but continued eating and slowly walked off into the woods. Some days I can step out on that same porch and there will be a deer just 10-12 yards from me. Wow. Love it!
You never know what kind of critter you will find out here. The squirrels follow after the chickens. The chickens clear away the leaves and litter and then the sqirrels come behind them to dig up nuts that are more easily exposed. Lizards and snakes steer clear of the chickens. The chickens will all gather around, peck until the offender is dead and then fight over the prize. They are attack chickens after all. Good chickens, good chickens. :) Speaking of chickens I have to go down and see how all of our Buff Orpington chicks are doing now that have been moved to the chicken house. So far no losses or anything. They have considerable more room than when they were in the brooder box! Until later………
I have a totally scary story to share. It is a snake story. I slithering, sneaky snake story. Yesterday Short Man, Ms. Firecracker and Ms. Banana were outside playing by the van in the front yard. They were walking on the rail road ties that seperate the driveway from the front yard. As Ms. Banana (age 4) was standing there a snake came out from under the tie, curled around her foot, opened its mouth and struck her foot but not hard. It did not go through her shoe and sock. THANK YOU GOD!!!!! Short Man came running inside yelling that there was a rattlesnake and it tried to bite Ms. Banana. I grabbed my .22 and headed outside. It was gone by the time I got there. We couldn't find it yesterday. I had no way of knowing what kind of snake it was ( we have seen a black rat snake that is not poisonous). Now onto today. When Mr. Muscles came home he and several of the kids went outside to find the snake. They had to stand far back while Daddy moved the tie to see if he could find it. He did. It was staying cool under the same tie in an area some animal had tunneled. It was a copperhead. Yes, a pit viper. A poisonous snake. Again, THANK YOU GOD!!! The bite yesterday did not go through her shoe and into her little foot. Oh My Goodness!! I just can't bear to let my mind wander on this one! The snake disappeared down a hole. We got the hose and ran water but it never came out. Daddy filled the hole in and tamped it down HARD. I know the hole will come out somewhere else but at least that exit is no longer an option for the snake. We even turned over the other ties to make sure there was no snake. I am hoping we can find it and kill it. If not I will be crazy. How can I let the kids go out with a copperhead running loose!? I have the heebie jeebies now.
Here are some great tips I got from Silvan Simplicity. Thanks Mickey!
PRETTY NEAT LITTLE TIPS
Bed Sheets After drying my sheets, I put both of the neatly folded sheets and one of the pillowcases in the other pillow case. The next time you change sheets, you just take out the one pillow case with the sheets and the other pillow case inside. No need to look for matches. Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works. Easy Deviled Eggs Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal the bag and mash till they are all broken up.Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up, mixing thoroughly. Cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze the mixture into the egg.
Then simply throw bag away when done – easy clean up. Expanding Frosting When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat fewer sugar/calories per serving. Reheating Refrigerated Bread To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster. Newspaper Weeds-Away (I actually used this method in both GA & FL – even kills off grass!) Start by putting in your plants. Work your normal nutrients into your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go, cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds WILL get through some gardening plastics. They will NOT get through wet newspapers. Broken Glass Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken pieces of glass – the fibers catch ones you can't see! No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away. Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. To keep them from eating all of your bird seed, add red pepper flakes to the seed. The birds aren't bothered by it, but the squirrels hate it! Easier Thank You's When you throw a bridal/baby shower, buy a pack of Thank You cards for the guest of honor. During the party, pass out the envelopes and have everyone put their address on one. When the bride/new mother gets ready to write out the thank you notes, they're all addressed! New Bike If you purchase a new bike for your child, place his/her picture inside the handle bar before placing the grips on. If the bike is ever stolen and later recovered, You can remove the grip and there is your proof who actually owns the bike. Flexible Vacuum To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum hose. It can be bent or flattened to get into those narrow openings. Reducing Static Cling Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. The same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place the pin in seam of slacks and – voila! – static is gone. Measuring Cups Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup.
Next, add your ingredient (such as peanut butter) and watch how easily it comes right out. Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog up, rub with the eraser! It works better than a cloth! Conditioner Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner that you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair... Good-bye Fruit Flies To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass and fill it to ½" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid – mix well.
You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! Get Rid of Ants Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home" & can't digest it… so it kills them. It may take a week or so (especially if it rains) but it works… and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed! Sand Gone Take baby powder to the beach. Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When you're ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder. The sand will slide right off your skin.
...like you should do something, do it. I wasn't going to go check on my new chicks but then I thought well, maybe just one more time. It is a good thing I did! The heat lamp bulb went kaput. Yikes! The little things were all huddled together so I found two more lights and put them on the chicks. Blessedly the brooder box is very big (could hold 65+ chicks as they grow) and I could put 2 lights on just in case but they still have room to spread out and not get over heated. I have no idea how many I would have lost but I am glad that we lost none.
I finally got the phone call from the Post Office! My buffs (and 1 rare chick) are doing great. All of them are alive though 2 of them have foot injuries. More than likely one or both of them had some egg remaining and the others just kept pecking. I have them seperated from the rest with their own food and water and we doctored their feet. We will see what happens. They are all eating and drinking well. We watched them for a long time as they ran around. Too, too cute!
Just 3 more days of schooling left and then we will complete the 06-07 year. After a few weeks off we will jump into the 07-08 year. I have almost everything I need. I will spend the next few weeks of off time for the kids getting our schedules and curriculums together. I am looking forward to trying some new scheduling ideas I have gotten from the wonderful homeschoolers here. Woo Hoo!
The veggie garden is doing much better because we FINALLY GOT SOME RAIN!!! 2 times in 4 days! The drought is so bad here that with the 2 thunderstorms we have had everything is soaking up the water like a sponge and is bright green with tons of new growth. We have a good chance of rain everyday this week. Yes! I know it won't alleviate the drought completely but every bit adds up and helps. My squash has blooms, the tomatoes are getting bigger and closer to ripening, the beans have blooms and everything is taking off. I love it! Mr. Muscles asked me why we didn't grow several things this year and I pointed out that we need a garden 3 times this size for our family. He laughed and we are making plans for a bigger garden this fall.
It is very late and I am off to bed. More tomorrow! Good night and God bless.
I finally got back into the garden this evening. With the past two weekends spent in AL and the push during the week to get our schooling for the 06-07 year finished I just have not had much time to spend taking care of the veggies. I got some potatoes planted over a week ago and this evening I was able to water them well with my compost tea. I moved two tomatoes that just were not growing well. I made sure to give them a good amount of compost and watered them in. I also replanted the cucs. Being in the south with two growing seasons I am not worried about them at all. It just means that I won't have cucs out of my garden for a while. No big deal. I can get some at the farmer's market. The beans that were eaten by rabbits are recovering nicely. The beans that were not eaten are starting to get flowers on them. Several tomatoes have green tomatoes on them and lots of flowers. We have a few hot peppers that are getting ready and again- lots of blooms. My sweet potatoes are growing well, the lettuce will be ready for the first picking soon, radishes are ready (and Mr. Muscles says they are de-lish), the corn is growing pretty well, the different kinds of squash are doing great and the cabbage is really growing. Short Man helped me to dress almost everything in the garden with rich compost and then we watered. We sure could use some rain. The drought is bad. My gardens need it. The firefighters would sigh a big sigh of relief if we could get a little rain- or better yet- a good, deep, two-day rain. Ok God, I am putting in my order for one of those now. Thank you!
I found out what the shrub is that I posted a picture of below. It is a sweet shrub. Here is the info on it.
SWEET SHRUB (Strawberry Bush, Sweet Shade)
Sweet Shrub is native to the Appalachian stream banks of the Smokies, where it is also known as Carolina Allspice, Strawberry Bush, Sweet Shade, and Bubby Blossom. Women used to place the flowers in their bodices as a perfume, hence the name "Bubby Blossom". Sweet shrub was once commonly found as an ornamental around colonial homes, especially south of the Mason-Dixon line. Several large bushes can fill a small yard with the combined fragrance of strawberry, cantaloupe, spiced apple, and burgundy wine. Sweet shrub has a distinctive maroon-red flower about 2" across. It is pollinated by small beetles that were the first pollinators of flowering plants and were instrumental in the evolution of flowering plants, long before bees and flies appeared on the scene. When the flower first opens it has the fragrance of spiced apples as it opens over a period of 7 to 10 days. Flowers first appear in mid-March with a flush of flowers in April, and a trailing out through May. Even the leaves are fragrant when rubbed, and in the fall they turn a sunny yellow. In colonial times the cinnamon-flavored bark was used as a seasoning. Sweet shrubs are ideal for planting close to the house near a window where the fragrance may drift indoors. Plant additional plants by a favor-ite path or sitting area. Will flower splendidly in full sun, but is best adapted to light shade. Flowers in 2 to 3 years from seed. Medicinal: Useful for damp spleen. The leaves, twigs, and buds have diaphoretic properties. An emmenagogue, and possibly has some anti-viral activity.
I have this stuff all over the place and it smells wonderful! Woo hoo!
I cannot find the homemade clothing detergent and the homemade dishwasher detergent recipes!! I had them saved somewhere but now -poof! Do you know them or know where I can find them? I have my washing soda, fels-naptha and ivory, and borax. I am ready!!! I just need the recipes. LOL
Yesterday was the first day I had let the chickens and ducks free range. They have been in the chicken run for the past couple of weeks while they got to know their home roost. When I let them out they did not stray too far from home. When I went to lock them up last night they were all in the chicken house and ready to sleep! Woo Hoo!
Mr. Muscles work on the front porch last night after we worked out. It was back, arm and stomach day. Anyway, Mr. Muscles is putting deck boards on the front porch and he is now about 65% done. He needs more wood to finish. It all ready looks so much better and bigger. That will be a bonus when we sell the house. We are going to have a yard sale the first weekend of June and I am going to make up fliers about the house and property. I pray it will be a successful day!
I put a request out on our local homeschooling group site looking for a piano teacher and I think I may have found someone to teach Ms. Firecracker. Finally. She will be thrilled.
For anyone who is having a hard time finding Fels Naptha laundry soap I found a great website that sells it. They have it for 1.25 a bar! www.soapsgonebuy.com
They also have a whole list of uses as well as recipes for those uses.
It is not too late of a start this morning. I have everyone up, Ms. Suesue is changed and fed and breakfast for the tribe is going. I have a lot I want to get done around here today. There is laundry, going through a chair of baby stuff, clearing off the end table, sweeping, mopping the kitchen, organizing 07-08 curriculum (master list is needed), schoolwork, more dusting and I want to clean my bathroom. Oh, and I need to get some stuff planted in the garden but I may wait until Mr. Muscles is home.
I hope ya'll like the pics I posted below. I am also posting a pic of my nesting box Mr.Muscles built. It is exaclty what I had in mind and exceeded my expectations. In a week I will have hens sitting in it. Woo hoo!
I am off for now. Going to see how much I can get done before lunch. God Bless!
My last post showed one of our chicks hatching out. This time I thought I would show you our farm birds now.
The 4 big ones in the corner are my 9 week old dominecker chicks I hatched out. There are also 2 aracaunas, 1 rhode island red (front center) and 3 mallard ducklings that are about 2 1/2 weeks old.
I made a trip to the feed store and walked in to find a whole area of ducklings, chickens and rabbits. AAAHHHHH! Thank goodness the kids decided to continue to watch a movie in the van or I would have left with a lot more than what I did. LOL. I got one 50 lb bag of scratch, 2 bags of cedar chips and 2 mallard ducklings. How could I possibly resist???? It was an evil ploy and I fell for it! I am going down to the lower shed and check on them in a little while and snap a couple of pics. Our homestead is growing!
PS- please read my previous entry and see if you can help me out. Thanks!
I saw a neat cleaning tip on a show called How Clean is Your House? You combine 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/2 cup of vinegar, a tsp or so of tea tree oil and 2 cups of water. Let stand for about 10 minutes in a bowl. After 10 minutes put into a spray bottle and top off with water. Will clean toilets, tubs and showers fantastically.
A second one is combining washing powder (like tide, etc) and baking soda (equal parts). You can put it on a sponge and scrub directly or make a paste with it and then scrub.
Have a great laundry tip. Use vinegar in place of fabric softener in your washer. It leaves your clothes soft, wrinkle free and smelling good. yep- SMELLING GOOD (even if you hang them on a clothesline). Try it and see.
Mr. Muscles and I have decided on a new grocery strategy. Thanks to several other bloggers we have places to buy some of our groceries in bulk and that will save us a pretty penny but we have decided to also try something else. We are going to be grocery shopping only once a month instead of every week. This will save us money, gas and time. I normally make a weekly dinner schedule but we are going to sit down and come up with a month long meal schedule. Not one that is really strict but one where we choose which dinner to have which night. Before the big grocery shopping day can happen we have to plan the meals, decide what stores to go to and make sure we are getting the best deal from that store. I want to check out a local meat market to see if they have better prices or not. We'll see.... This is going to be an interesting experiment and I pray it really pays off. Less impulse buys and more carefully planned meals (less waste) will be a good thing.
We will also be planting our garden soon. From that we will can and freeze all we have room for. I want to make our own spaghetti sauce and can it so if you have a great recipe or any tips please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it! I will be going through my seeds and getting them ready for planting. I love gardening. Nothing like playing in the dirt, watching things grow and being able to feed your family from those tiny seeds!
I have a baby to feed now so I will be back to read the rest of the latest 100 in a little while.
I wanted to thank everyone for the bulk food links. They are exactly what we are looking for.
The declutter bug seems to be spreading very fast through HB and it is a lot of fun to read about how much everyone is getting done, getting rid of and is planning on doing. With the bug in full swing here as well I am going through my bedroom right now. I have most of it done and several boxes ready to get rid of. Some items will go to goodwill and some will be freecycled. For those who do not know what freecycling is go to www.freecycle.org. It is a way of getting rid of and finding treasures without them going to the dump. I have gotten some pretty amazing things from freecycling and have been able to find good homes for items we didn't want to go to waste.
We are looking to buy items like old fashioned oatmeal (rolled oats), grits and such in bulk but there are no stores around me that sell items like that. Does anyone know of any sites with good prices and fair shipping? TY!
Dinner tonight- cheeseburger pot pie
This feeds our family of 8 with the addition of a side or two.
2 lbs of ground meat (we use turkey)
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of ketchup
1 tbl of mustard (this gives it kick so I add a little more)
half of onion diced
1 cup of shredded cheese
1 cup of flour
dash of salt
1 tsp of baking soda
milk
Brown the ground meat and then mix in the tomato sauce, ketchup, mustard, onion and the cheese. Pour into a casserole dish. Now make the dough topping. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Mix with milk until consistency is like thick pancake mix. Pour over the top of the meat mixture and spread out evenly. Bake in the oven at 375. When topping is almost done you can sprinkle it with more shredded cheese if you like. PS- you can also make it with chopped bell pepper. Mmmmmmm! Let me know if you do any variations that are good. I'm game.
My family loves this dish and I hope yours does too.
