I have discussed with my husband and planned next years curriculum. I am always glad when this part is over. I always try to evaluate what each child needs work in, and plan around that. So here it is, drum roll please...
I have a 13, 9, and 7 year old. I try to stick with the same curriculum with each child unless they show some difficulty with it. Of course these are different grade levels.
Bible- Sharpening the Sword (also each child's handwriting assignment will be their Bible verse that is to be memorized each week.)
Math- Saxon
Language- Rod and Staff
History- Mystery of HIstory (each child will have a reading and writing assignment drawn from this study)
Science- Apologia
Well, I hope everyone has a great day.
I have been doing a little experiment over the last month. I wanted to see if using my clothes line almost entirely would save us a significant amount of money.
My husband likes his clothes softer than line dried clothes. So what I have done is hang them out to dry then I bring them in and put them in the dryer. I wait until I get a dryer full of his things and then I turn it on for 10 minutes. This does make a difference and it is still cutting down on the amount of time the dryer is running. I said this to explain why I have not used the clothes line entirely.
I took the amount of money we spent on our electric bill last June and compared it to this June's bill. I know this will not give an exact amount, but a close estimate. We have saved around $30 for one month!
Now my mathematical husband brought up the point that it takes me around 15 min. a day extra to hang out the clothes. I am not counting when I bring in the clothes because I fold them straight into the basket, and I would be taking the time to fold them daily anyway. I wash a load of clothes everyday except for Sunday. If I were getting paid by the hour for the month with the savings, it would come down to me making $5.00 an hour.
I have debated on the profit of this. I then think of the other benefits besides the savings. I love the smell of the clothes as I am hanging them on the line. It is also a joy to see the clothes on the line blowing in the breeze. It also shows my children there are other ways to do things without using electricity. One of my sons friends actually made the comment, "I thought the clothes would just get dirty again hanging on the line." Our clothes also last longer if I do not use the dryer. I could go on but these are some of the main advantages.
Anyway, here are the results. I hope it might benefit someone.
Kim at Forget-Me-Not Homestead has tagged me.
At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.
1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was 21 and newly married. We were living in a little one bedroom apartment and I felt that I had everything I would ever need. I look back now and I realize that I did.
2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Wash, hang out, bring in and fold laundry.
2. Clean trays under rabbit hutches.
3. Deep clean kitchen.
4. Homeschool the children.
5. Meet some ladies at our local Ingles to sell some curriculum.
3. Snacks I enjoy:
I enjoy anything with chocolate in it, but my favorite snack is Nutty Buddy Ice Cream! Yummy
4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I would buy a beautiful 100 ac. lot and put us a small log cabin right in the middle. I would then buy any necessary items for our many farm animals that we would have. I would then put enough money up for my husband and I to live comftorably. I would of course put some money up for my children's futures. I would then donate the rest to whatever charity the Lord laid on our hearts. One of these I believe would be Shriner's hospital which has helped my youngest son in so many ways.
5. Places I have lived:
I have always lived in NC. I have of course lived in various areas in this state.
I am tagging:
Ashley at Jonash...Two of a Kind Working on a Full House
Andrea at Blessings Hobby Farm
Patricia at Welcome to My Home and Family
Vickie at Little Bitty Homestead
Pat at In His Hands
bflegg at almost heaven
It's been a while since I have had a chance to blog. We have all been busy doing our spring chores. We have done most of the planting, minus a few things, and we are now maintaining the garden.
Our new chicks are doing great. We should be getting the ones we ordered next month, so I hope these will be ready for our chick lot by then. Our chickens are free range, but we keep the ones that we are going to sell in the lot until they reach pullet size. It protects them from hawks and keeps everything orderly.
We should be getting our redworms in today. I have been researching these for some time, and I am excited about getting them. We are hoping these will give us some good soil for our garden, cut down on our feed bill for our chickens, and help with our increasing amount of rabbit manure. These really are wonderful creatures.
Well I hope eveyone has a great day.
Well our eggs in the incubator are starting to hatch. My son and I were working on some math yesterday and we kept hearing some chirping. We at first thought it was the birds outside, but soon realized it was the ones inside. The first one was born at about 2:00 this morning. No I was not up all night, but they are in our bedroom and it was making more noise than I could sleep through. We had another born this morning around 6:30, and yet another is trying to hatch as we speak. I don't care how many chicks are hatched around here, it is always so exciting to watch the miracle of it all.
Well have a blessed day.
My mom called me yesterday morning and said I needed to come to my sisters and pick up some strawberries. She had been given 17 gallons that could no longer be sold. I picked some up and I spent my day making strawberry jam. Because they were over ripe they made a deep red jam, but it is beautiful. I ended up with 10 quarts and 5 pints.
The day before I worked on a little more planting. I planted some sweet potatoes, okra, acorn squash, cantaloup, and a few more cucumbers. I had to do a little more weeding, it seems I can grow some very strong weeds. I also noticed we have some wild blackberries growing along our fence line. We have some tame ones planted but I love to freeze blackberries to make cobbler over the winter, so we all agree the more the merryier when it comes to these berries.
Our apple trees have little apples all over them this year. I think this is going to be a good year for our trees. I know they were polinated well because our bees were all over them.
Well I hope everyone has a great day.
It was another busy day today. We got some free mulch yesterday from a job site my brother is at, and we have been spreading it along our front bank. We are planning on putting strawberries on this bank possibly next spring so we want to get the ground prepared now. We are all very tired and just relaxing now. It is great how hard work can calm down 3 active children.
I am going out to pick up another load shortly and get some plants for our garden. Spring around here involves so much work, but no other time of the year can we see so much progress. I love seeing our garden growing, our animals raising their young, and the years projects being completed.
Well I hope everyone is having a great day.
I have been doing some planting today. I planted some squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbage, and marigolds. I have also been doing a little weeding.
I was doing this last night and it was such a peaceful time. I could hear my children playing in the background and our chickens clucking as they scratched around the yard. The birds were singing and there was a cool wind blowing. It was one of those moments I was really thankful for what God has blessed us with. With everything happening in the world today it is nice to have moments like this.
We have caught our first swarm of bees!
We had tried to split our hive at the beginning of April and we thought we had successfully done this because we had a whole new hive. Well Wednesday afternoon my oldest came running in to tell me that our bees had swarmed. I then called my husband at work and he came home so we could try to get it. They were in a very difficult tree to get to but my husband attached the ladder to our fence pole and I held the other side up. There were bees flying all around us but we finally got them in a bucket. When we went to pour them in the new hive some flew away and went back to the tree they were swarming in. There were some still flying in and out of the hive so we were not sure what was going on.
Well, Thursday came and it looked like the swarm had grown to it's original size so we thought perhaps we had wasted our time. My dad and mom had come over for a visit and we were sitting on the porch admiring our swarm. As we were busy talking I looked up and the swarm was gone. My son went down to the hive and it was full of bees. So we went from having one hive to three.
I guess this is just another one of the exciting happenings on our little homestead. Who said this kind of life was boring?
Copy and post on you're own blog. What have you done? I've borrowed this from another blog (with permission) and added a few things myself. The bolded ones are things I've done.
01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
08. Said “I love you’ and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
42. Had amazing friends
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
89. Gone to
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
26. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life
151. Seen a bear in the wild
152. Shot an animal
153. Fallen out of a tree
154. Eaten a grasshopper
I noticed some other bloggers talking about notebooking and such, so I thought I would tell a little about our homestead journal that I recently started.
I thought it would be a good idea to note when animals are born and different info about them. I wanted to list their egg production, offspring production, when sold, etc. I also am listing when we plant different things and how well they did on our little plot of land. I think this will be a good record for my children and for us when we try to remember what day we planted the potatoes (this happened just yesterday).
Well thanks for reading and have a great day.
We were able to get 5 thornless blackeberry bushes in the ground and 2 muscadine grapes yesterday.
I am hoping my husband can till up our upper garden today so I can start planting my herb garden. I am also planning on planting some morning glories and moon flowers that will run along our chicken coop.
I try to set goals everyday to accomplish the many tasks of spring. With homeschooling and my household jobs, adding our homestead chores to this can get overwhelming at times. I am slowly learning that if I do a little everyday and not worry about tomorrows tasks it make it much easier. Sometimes I will look around and see all of the unfinished items and think it will never be finished. Then I have to look at all God has allowed us to accomplish and it is a little easier.
So today I am going to get a little housework done, then we are going on a field trip. I then need to go cash my husband's check and drop some eggs off at my sisters. She will take them to her store tomorrow and sell them for us. I also have to drop some shirts off for my dear husband at work.
We will then go by the library. Then we will come home and do a little planting and finish some laundry. I will start dinner sometime when we get home. Dinner plans for tonight are pizza and maybe we will watch a movie. We have been watching the Walton's for some time now so we will probably continue this marathon.
Well I hope everyone has a great day.
I am taking a breather while the children are doing some silent reading. We have had a good day homeschooling and I hope to get a little housework done this evening. We also have church tonight so I will need to get an early dinner and early baths.
I have been researching about raising redworms recently. As many know that read my blog we are beginning to raise rabbits. Our plans are to put trays under our rabbit hutches to catch their droppings. We are going to keep red worms in these trays to keep the droppings composted. The theory is this will keep flies and smell down. My children can also turn around and sell the redworms to fisherman or anyone else interested in using them to compost. Also the compost in these trays should be wonderful fertilizer. This plan is only in the makings right now so I will keep everyone updated on how this works.
Yesterday I ordered some new plants online. I have never done this before so I am interested to see how they will be once they are shipped. I ordered 12 tomato plants, 2 elderberry bushes, 2 mulberry bushes, a cherry tree, and a few other assorted things.
I have been reading about the health benefits of elderberry and I was excited about adding it to my list of fruit trees. I have also heard it makes beautiful jam.
Here is some of the health benefits:
* Cardiovascular protection. At the scientific heart of the elderberry boom, Doctors Werner Pfannhauser and Michael Murkovic at Austria's University of Graz have found that elderberry extract reduces oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Oxidation of LDL cholesterol is implicated in atherogenesis, thus contributing to cardiovascular disease.
* Anti-viral activity. An Israeli study on the anti-viral activity of elderberry extract found that in vitro elderberry extract inhibited replication of a number of strains of influenza A and B in cell cultures. In the same paper, administration of elderberry extract to 27 patients with influenza shortened the duration of flu symptoms.
* Stress reduction. Austrian endocrinologist Dr. Sepp Porta uses elderberry concentrate in stress studies. "We only gave these people the elderberry for 10 days," he notes. "We put them through typical stress tests, all the usual physical challenges, and the results were so remarkable, I checked them over and over."
Well my husband left me the truck and I have so many things to get caught up on. My friend and I need to go and pick up some furniture donated to the church nursery today and take it to the church. I then need to take a table over to my dads to put into storage. Then on the way home I need to pick up some straw and starter feed for our chicks that should be hatching any day now.
I am also going to use the straw to experiment with potatoes. I planted some potatoes in a large bucket in about 3 inches of soil. When they start growing I am going to cover them with more soil. Then wait and let them grow some more. When they get approximately 10 in. high I am going to cover them the rest of the way with straw. I also planted potatoes in my garden, but I wanted to see if this would work.
Anyway if everything goes as planned we are supposed to go watch the children's friend in a play tonight-The Billy Goats Gruff. I plan on making Cabbage Rolls and some type of bread for dinner tonight.
Well I hope everyone has a great day.
It is such a beautiful day today. My son is now finished with testing and we are all relaxing for the moment. We are going out to get a few outside chores done in a few minutes so I thought I would tell a little about our day. I did get our chicken coop cleaned up and I put some new plants in our pond. I have chicken thighs in the crockpot and we will have chicken and rice for dinner. I want to get the back yard straightened up some. I also want to get my potatoes planted and maybe my lettuce. We also have church tonight so I need to get the children in the bath early. Well I guess I need to get busy.
We had a busy day today but we got a lot accomplished. We straightened up the house this morning and tried to organize the craziness here. We have our walls painted, floors down, and trim put up (not yet painted). I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though. Well anyway, I cleaned up all that I could. We then had piano practice and while we were out we picked up the fencing for our garden. We put up most of the fencing but I realized that I miscalculated on the posts so I will need to pick them up tomorrow.
My oldest will be going to take his required yearly testing tomorrow. My others will take a different test the end of this month. I am always a little nervous about these but I try not to let it show.
I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.
I am looking for the best place to buy in bulk. I am specifically looking for cornmeal because I can not buy it in my local Sam's club. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Well here is my previous list of things that we needed to do this week and where we are at on them.
1. New floors put down, the nice new linolium wood snap together flooring. This is being done as I write, I am trying to stay out of the way.
2. New rabbit hutches built, our new bucks are doing great right now but I would like to soon get them in their new homes We bought the supplies for these yesterday and we are waiting on the rain to stop.
3. Fence built around the garden area, we have free range chickens and we had a little trouble with them getting into the garden last year We are still shopping around for the best and most economical fencing.
4. baseboards put around the bottom of the walls, this will have to wait until the flooring is put in waiting of the floor
5. all new trim painted, this will be mostly me while me husband does the other things picked out and bought the paint yesterday
6. garden tilled, my dad will probably be bringing his tiller over today
7. general yard clean up, this will probably be where the children come in because of all of the things we have been doing our yard and porch have been really
neglected.
I also want to get our pond cleaned out but this may not get done because my husband only has so many days off.
Well I hope everyone has a great day.
Well the walls are painted and we have the molding put around the top of the walls. My husband will be home starting tomorrow through Monday so we hope to get a lot accomplished. Here is our list.
1. New floors put down, the nice new linolium wood snap together flooring.
2. New rabbit hutches built, our new bucks are doing great right now but I would like to soon get them in their new homes
3. Fence built around the garden area, we have free range chickens and we had a little trouble with them getting into the garden last year
4. baseboards put around the bottom of the walls, this will have to wait until the flooring is put in
5. all new trim painted, this will be mostly me while me husband does the other things
6. garden tilled, my dad will probably be bringing his tiller over today
7. general yard clean up, this will probably be where the children come in because of all of the things we have been doing our yard and porch have been really neglected.
Well we will be busy but I will be so glad to get these things finished.
Hope everyone has a great day.