Category Archives: Homemaking

Blackberry Syrup with Honey

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So…we’re moving in just a couple of weeks. And we had a freezer full of food to eat up since we will be living in camping trailers and won’t have freezer space available to us (have you seen how small those freezers are?).

We had several bags of wild blackberries in the freezer from two summers ago. First of all, they just needed to be used. Because, you know, two summers ago!

Second of all, as I said, we don’t want to transport frozen food to Nevada. So we either needed to eat them or transform them into something that is doesn’t need to be refrigerated/frozen.

We had so many that we could eat cobbler several times a week from now till we leave. And as much as we all love cobbler, we’re just not that into desserts around here. We see them as a treat rather than a staple.

So a canned good of some sort was the order of the day.

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I coulda made jam. But as much as we had would have probably made about 5 pints of jam. Way too much for us to go through. That would have lasted us years! We just don’t eat that much jam.

So I chose to make syrup. By straining out the pulp and seeds I knew I’d get a smaller volume of juice. Not only that, but one jar of syrup will be gone in just a couple of days. We don’t make pancakes all that often, but when we do, we open a jar of our delicious homemade fruit syurp, use it for the pancakes, and the remainder gets used in oatmeal till it’s gone a day or two later.

I started out with 10 cups of frozen blackberries. I put them in a pot with about 1 cup of water and heated them till boiling, then cooked them for about 5 minutes. I then took a potato masher and mushed them up to get out as much juice as possible.

After that, I scooped them into some jelly bags to drain. You could use a piece of muslin or linen fabric, or several layers of cheescloth if you don’t have jelly bags.

I hung the jelly bags from a cabinet doorknob and let them drip into a bowl.

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They drained like that for about an hour or so. I probably could have let them drain for several more hours and gotten more juice out of them, but I was in a hurry.

I ended up with 4 cups of juice. I added this and one 1 cup of honey to a pot on the stove and started heating it. I chose this amount of honey because that’s what tasted good to us. Feel free to adjust the amount to your liking. You can also use any other kind of sweetener you’d prefer.

Once it was boiling, I sprinkled in about two tablespoons of no-sugar-needed pectin. I figured this would thicken it up into more of a syrup consistency without waiting for it to boil down on the stove. If you’d prefer not to use pectin, you can just let it simmer for a while on the stove, but be prepared to lose a bunch of volume. If you do use pectin, be careful not too add to much or you’ll end up with jelly!

Once it boiled good for a minute or so, I ladled it into prepared jars and processed it for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. For detailed instructions on water bath canning, check out this site.

You can see from the following picture that the syrup is thick enough to coat the inside of the jar. Yummy!

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I ended up with 5 cups of syrup in 4 jars (two 12oz jars and two 8oz jars).

Can’t wait to have some pancakes!

And yes, we left enough blackberries out to make a couple cobblers. 🙂

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Moving along

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So this happened yesterday:

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That’s my dad’s truck. Hooked to my in-law’s trailer. Gettin’ ready to haul it back to Nevada for us.

It’s one less thing we’ll have to worry about on the day of the Big Move.

In THREE WEEKS!!!

Ohmygosh! Three weeks from today we’re moving back to Nevada!

I’m not excited or anything. 😉

In the meantime, I’m finishing little projects here and there. The house is pretty much empty, so there’s really not much left to pack. But, we still had a large freezer full of food that we don’t want to cart back to NV with us.

Like blackberries from two summers ago!

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So I made Blackberry Syrup. I think I’ll write a post on that. I only took the one picture above during the process, but it’s a simple enough process that it doesn’t require a lot of explaination.

Other than those little projects like cleaning out the freezer, we’re just soaking in the green beauty around us and biding our time.

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A cool thing happend last week when my man and I went out for date night. We went to a movie theater we’d never been to before and had about a 30 minute wait. So we walked around to this beautiful lake that was right next to the shopping center where the theater was.

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And got to watch a couple Bald Eagles flying around!

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Right there in the middle of town. It was such a cool experience!

So, to re-cap: the trailer is on it’s way to Nevada, the house is nearly empty, and we are eagerly awaiting our move out date in just three weeks.

Yeah.

Not excited at all. 😉

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

The Next Generation

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What do you believe?

What do you think is best?

Chances are, if you truly believe it and think it’s best, whatever it is, you want your children to follow in your footsteps.

But what are you doing about it?

Learning kitchen skills

I was reading in the Bible this morning how in just a couple generations, the Jews had completely turned away from God.

Judges 2:10 says, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD, nor what he had done for Israel.” (NIV)

Now, no matter what your religious leanings are, there’s a lesson there for us all. In just a couple generations, the nation of Israel had fallen away from their beliefs.

Helping build the chicken coop.

I got to thinking about what our own country was like just a few generations ago. When my grandparents were young. Their values and morals. And just how different things are now. A LOT can change in just a few generations.

Whether you believe it’s a good change or not, the fact is, there’s been a drastic change in the last 80 years. And there will probably be more as we go forward.

More cooking skills

So, how can we pass on our knowledge, our beliefs, our values, to the next generation? How can we ensure that our children have the best chance of believing as we do?

 

Bible study

The answer to that also can be found in the Bible.

Deuteronomy 6:7 says, “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (NIV)

Packing lunches for the homeless.

Of course, this verse is talking about God’s laws, but the principle is the same for every value we hold dear.
We have to talk to our children. We have to teach our children.

It’s not enough to just show them. Yes, our example is very important. We need to live out what we believe. But to expect our children to follow in our footsteps just by observing us is walking a dangerous road.

Helping preserve the harvest.

They’re never too young to teach the why. 

Why do you believe what you believe?

Why do you do what you do?

Why do you live the way you live?

Homegrown cherries and the fun and hard work of harvesting them.

Sure, when they are young, they won’t understand. They will follow you because they love you and because they know no other way.

That’s why we have to talk to them. To teach them about our way of life. About your values and beliefs.

Planting the garden

Because one day they are going to grow up. One day they are going to look around and see that the rest of the world doesn’t live like your family.  And if you haven’t prepared them for that, they will have a much harder time holding onto the values that you hold so dear.

 

Planting the garden

Now, this is a homesteading blog, so I don’t want to get too preachy, but in the long run, do I really care if my children follow in our homesteading footsteps? Well, I hope they do. I believe this type of life is a very good one. But I know that there’s something in life so much more important than organic veggies and sustainable living. I believe that following God is the most important thing.

Observing and helping (and getting to stand on the roof of the trailer 😉 )

And I want my children to believe the same thing.
I am reminded of the first episode of season 2 of the TV show Alone. It is a survival show where the contestants are up against nature and their own psyches completely alone in the wilderness. They can tap out at any time. The last man standing wins half a million dollars.

In episode 1, they showed a man who bragged about how good he was going to do. He had the skills, he said. He wasn’t afraid, he said. He bragged about how if he met a bear, someone would have to come to the bear’s rescue.

What happened when he got to the wilderness and encountered actual bears (or rather the evidence that they were close by)? You guessed it, he bailed. As much as he bragged about it, he wasn’t actually prepared for there to be bears out there.

Learning to use tools (and learning to be a teacher)

I see passing on our values much the same way. It’s easy for people to say they believe something, but as soon as they come up to a difficulty or hardship, they bail because it was harder than they really expected.

If we truly want our children (or anyone we are mentoring) to follow in our footsteps, we need to teach them not only that there are bears in the world, but how to handle them.

Talk to your children, folks. Teach them. It’s a big job, a hard job, yes.

But one with some awesome rewards!

 

Maridy

Preparing

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Today was such a beautiful day out, I just had to forgo the boxes inside in favor of some outdoor work. Did a bit of straightening and cleaning and weeding.

And Flower Girl and I added a bit of curb appeal to the front yard.

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And for dinner, I decided to start getting in the practice of cooking outside, since that will be our life soon. I fired up the side burner on our gas grill for the first time.

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These skillet potatoes and onions will go great with the smoked chicken Hubby is cooking in the smoker. Mmmmm…. the smell of dinner cooking in the great outdoors. What is it about cooking outside that makes everything taste better? 🙂

Anyway, we’re busy preparing for our move (which will hopefully happen in May). Whether it be physically preparing by packing and cleaning house, or mentally preparing by figuring out how we’re going to cook our favorite foods while boondocking on the homestead, we’re preparing to start our great adventure!

And what an adventure it’s going to be!

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Unbuilding a home

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As we plan and prepare to build our house in Nevada this summer, I feel that we are quickly unbuilding our home here in Oregon. We already sold off a lot of the larger pieces of furniture.

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Emptiness

We are having a yard sale this weekend to hopefully get rid of the bulk of everything else we have stacked in the garage.

The girls’ bunk bed is dismantled in the garage waiting to be sold. Princess Girl took the whole thing apart with very little help from us. She is going to be such a huge help when we build!

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She even patiently let Flower Girl help with a couple things.

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So now the girls are sharing one dresser (the other is being sold) and sleeping on their mattresses on the floor.

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Toys have been downsized to a few favorites. Some have gone into storage, most have been donated to charity (No, I don’t want to fight with a three year old over selling her toys in the yard sale. Better that they are just out of sight, out of mind!)

The living room has a couch and coffee table in it. Nothing else. And the coffee table is going bye-bye this weekend. The dining area has a table, but no chairs. The family room and kitchen are the most furnished rooms in the house, since we do still have to live here. But even they are sparse.

And it feels good! Not just the knowing that we are returning home soon, but the emptiness itself. The space. The uncluttered feel. When our family of 4 moved in with Bachan and Pagee, we had to fit our stuff in on top of their stuff. I needed an area for school/crafts/work, so we squeezed it into a corner of the living room. It worked, but it sure felt cramped.

Since Hubby works from home, he uses our bedroom for his office, which means his desk, etc is in our bedroom. It works, but it sure feels cramped.

And since he takes up extra space in the bedroom, there’s really no space for any of my stuff. So I keep all my clothes in the girls’ room. It works, but, you guessed it, it sure is cramped.

So as we downsize our lives once again to fit into 240 square feet, I am once again reminded that we often carry around too much extraneous stuff in our lives. And that the more space you have, the more you fill it up.

So, once again, I am finding the downsizing process liberating. And while most of the stuff being sold in the yard sale is Bachan and Pagee’s, there are quite a few item of ours as well.

And it’s all rather exciting since it means we are moving soon!

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Daily Life – Days 24 thru 30 – And a Ketchup recipe

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Ok, so I know I’m a week behind. There is a reason, and it’s big news, but that is a post all on it’s own. Suffice to say, we’ve been busy, busy, busy the past week. And even though we are still super busy, I actually made ketchup today.

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We were completely out, and I hate some of the ingredients in the store bought stuff. This is the second time I’ve ever made ketchup (or catsup if you prefer). This time I wanted to start with tomato paste. By starting with paste, it takes a lot of the time out of the process because you don’t have to simmer for so long.

I got three pints, which I processed, and another pint + a bit which went in the fridge and freezer.

I’m not sure how I like it yet. It doesn’t taste quite like ketchup that I’m used to. I have only made this recipe completely from scratch before, never from paste, so that may alter the taste. And I know from my previous attempt years ago that the taste does improve over time.

So I give you the recipe without my full endorsement since I can’t say I really like it yet. So take it as you will. 🙂

Tomato Paste Ketchup (4 pints)

  • 8 – 6oz cans of tomato paste
  • 2 Tbl onion powder
  • 3/4 cup Honey (or sweetener of your choice)
  • 1 Tbl canning salt
  • 2 1/2 cups (divided) Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tsp celery seed
  • 1 tsp whole allspice
  • 1 tsp mustard seed
  • 1 stick cinnamon

Tie the spices into a spice bag (you can use a couple layers of cheesecloth or I use nylon pantyhose – clean of course) and simmer them in 1 1/2 cups of apple cider vinegar for about 10 minutes, Yes, your house will smell like vinegar! While that is simmering, add all the other ingredients except vinegar to the paste in a large pot. When the spices have simmered for about 10 minutes, take them out of the ACV and measure your spiced vinegar. Some of it will have evaporated during boiling, so add some of the extra to the spiced vinegar so that you have a total of 2 cups. Add that to your paste in the pot and stir well to combine everything. Heat to boiling, stirring often (very often).

Ladle hot ketchup into hot sterilized jars, wipe rims and put on lids. Process in a boiling waterbath for 10 minutes – adjust for altitude if necessary.

 

That’s it. Pretty simple. We’ll see how it turns out in a few days.

And speaking of how things turn out, I don’t think I shared a picture yet of the burned out candles.

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As I mentioned about the candles, they burned completely down, leaving no waste wax, and making it easy to retrieve the wick stands.

And speaking of the wick stands, here they are.

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They look just fine to me. Sure the plastic coating burned, but they are still quite functional. In the future, I would probably try to use uncoated paperclips, but this is what I had.

In the last week, Spring has hit the Pacific Northwest! On one of my weekly walking routes I take, there is a stump of a tree that Flower Girl calls the Bee Tree for good reason.

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It is so awesome to sit and watch the bees do their thing. You know there’s just gotta be some good honey in that tree! I’m hoping the city doesn’t tear it down. They have already topped the tree so it’s just a 10 foot tall stump. I’m hoping that means they plan to leave it for the bees.

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The tulip trees are just about to bloom. I’ve seen lots of fruit trees with blossoms, and tons of daffodils and hyacinth flowers around. Ahhh, I love spring!

And Flower Girl loves her Bachan (Japanese for “grandma”). I caught the two of them snuggling the other night. It was too precious.

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And that’s all I can share for now.

So, are you dying to know about our big news? I’m dying to tell you. But we’re both gonna have to wait, ’cause I have a three year old who needs to get into bed. I’ll be back soon with another post, I promise.

Daily Life #23 – making lists, burning candles, and studying the Bible

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No, not more candle tests, but I did let the ones I made burn all day today while I worked on making my Master Food Lists on the computer. I lit the candles (including the popsicle stick ones) at 7am, and other than the occasional wick trim, I didn’t do a single thing to them all day. Such a relief to finally be successful!

As I thought, the thicker string wick burned through its candle quite a bit faster than the thinner string. By 3 o’clock (nearly 12 hours total burn time)  the thicker wick had almost burned out. I blew it out along with all the others) since Princess Girl and I were leaving for our bible study date. When we got back, the thicker string candle would not re-light. It was too far gone.

But, I lit the others and they burned nearly till bed time. The thinner string candle burned for a total of 17 hours! And the smaller popsicle stick candle burned for probably 25 hours total. The larger popsicle stick candle has many, many more hours to burn!

One thing about the popsicle sticks is that they crackle as they burn. Kinda cool actually. 🙂

Both the popsicle stick wick and the thinner string wick ended up burning all of the wax. There is only a small residue of wax in the jars. This means that even with the smaller flames, they burn very efficiently.

I will take a look at the paperclip stands tomorrow and see how they fared when the flame burned all the way down. I’m hoping they will be usable again.

It was nice to get outside today and go for a walk with my girl. Then to sit in the coffee shop and watch the rain pour down as we sipped our coffees and talked about or Saviour. I love our weekly bible study dates.

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As the evening progressed after dinner, I nearly finished our Master Food Lists. My goodness, we eat a lot of variety! I can’t even imagine trying to produce all that ourselves, even though with only a few exceptions it is theoretically possible. As I see the whole picture, I’m thinking that “producing/growing as much of our own food as possible” might be a bit overzealous unless we fairly drastically cut back on variety. However, more and more, I’m seeing the value of community. If I can’t, or don’t want to produce something, but my neighbor can, then it might just be worth it to buy it from them. Or better yet, barter for it!

At any rate, it’s still exciting to plan. Have you ever written out a list of the foods you actually eat? I highly recommend it. It can be an enlightening experiment.

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Daily Life #22 – FINAL Final candle tests

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You know that scene in the movie Cast Away when Tom Hanks’ character finally manages to get a fire going?

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Yeah, that’s how I’m feeling right now!

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Ok, so my fire is not nearly as impressive as in the movie, but I’m proud of it.

I know. I know.

I said in yesterday’s post that I was done with testing. But I just couldn’t let it rest.

I hate stopping when I feel like there was more I could have done.

And this morning, something I had read jumped back into my head. I needed to try braiding my wicks!

Duh!

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So, here we go again!

Two braided wicks, one from the thinner string (black and white cotton “bakers twine”) and one from the thicker string (white cotton string).

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Both dipped in wax, straightened, cut to length, and put in paperclip wick stands.

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Then, as I described yesterday, using some rubber bands to hold the wick in the middle of the jar, and pouring the wax in two stages, I had two more candles ready to test (after cooling off, of course.)

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AND THEY WORK!!!

I’m sitting here with them burning beside me. They’ve been burning unassisted for three hours. No re-lighting needed. No straightening wicks needed. Nice tall flames with little to no smoke. And bright! I can definitely read a book by these if need be.

Because the wicks are two different sizes (thinner and thicker), they are burning the wax at different rates (and, yes, before anyone says anything, I do know that technically the wax itself is not burning, rather, it’s gasses given off as the wax evaporates due to the flame, or something like that. But you all know what I mean. 🙂 ).

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In this picture, you can see that there is a rim of unmelted wax around the edges. This is the thinner string.

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In this one, you can see that the wax is melted all the way across the jar, which means that this is actually the proper size wick for this size jar and this type of wax.

And that brings up a good point that I have not talked about. There are different kinds of waxes, with different melting points. The wax I am using is left overs from pillar candles. It is a harder wax with a higher melting temperature. This is a good thing for pillar candles since you don’t want them to melt and spill all over the place. That’s also what makes them good for taper candles. And as long as you have the right size wick for your jar, it makes an adequate jar candle, as well.

It will be interesting to see wich of these candles burn longer. The thinner wick because it’s not using up as much wax as it burns with it’s smaller flame, but is also leaving unused wax around the edges? Or the thicker wick which has a slightly larger flame, thus burning more rapidly, but also hotter to melt all the wax, thus providing more fuel?

From a survival standpoint, making candles in jars makes sense. They are easier to store since they won’t deform if they get hot, and they are harder to break.

Also, and probably more importlantly, they are safer. With tapers, you really have to be there with them at all times. If a taper candle tips a bit too much and wax starts pouring out the side, you can have issues very quickly.

So there you have it folks.

-Melt your wax in your desired method (I use a large coffee tin inside an old stockpot with some water in the pot. Kindof a double boiler effect. I also put several canning jar rings down in the bottom of the pot which the coffee can sits on. That way it’s not resting directly on the bottom of the pot which is getting direct heat from the burner. That may be overkill, but then I know I don’t have to worry about it.)
-While your wax is melting, braid your cotton twine (no special treatment necessary)
-Dip the braid in wax a couple times. Let cool and cut to size.
-Secure prepared wick in a paperclip and put it in your jar.
-Wrap three rubber bands aroud the jar (crossing the top, leaving a triangle in the middle), and place your wick in the middle of these rubber bands.
-Pour a bit of wax in to keep the wick stand from moving around.
-Once first layer of wax has solidified, fill the rest if the jar to the desired fullness.
-Let rest to cool and solidify. If desired, a bit more melted wax can be added after it has cooled completely in order to make the top flat.

That’s it. Yay! It works!

I’m so happy!

Now off yo bed!

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Daily Life #’s 17 &18 – Groceries and Even MORE Candle Testing

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Yesterday, February 11th was grocery shopping day. And it was a doozy! 4 hours and over $400! And there’s still a few things left to get at a different store.

But, it feels good to have the freezer and storage shelves filled up again. January is always a lean month as we recover financially from the holidays.

And our shopping trip came just in time since a good friend and her 4 kids joined us for dinner. Plenty of food to go around. Might not have been that way the day before. 🙂

Today, February 12 –
More candle testing today and I’m thrilled! We burned the taper/dipped candles we made the other day.

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You like my make-do candle holders? We do have a couple of taper holders, but since I didn’t know how much/if these candles would melt all over the place, I decided to use these jars with foil. It worked remarkably well.

The three wicks I used were the 48 hour borax soaked (middle), the skinnier string untreated (right), and the thicker string untreated (left).

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The girls wanted to burn the candles they made, as well. I don’t know how many times Flower Girl blew hers out then re-lit it by holding it up to one of the others.

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It was immediately obvious that the borax soaked wick was not going to work very well. You can see from this picture the way the crystallized borax builds up on the wick. I don’t know if it was the borax alone, but this candle burned 4 times as fast as the others.

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This is after just one hour. The borax wick candle is all but gone. The others, however, are doing great!

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I needed my little jars to make some more candles, so I transfered these to taller jars. By this point (3 hour) burn time, all I had done to these candles is trim the wicks at hour 2. You can see in the above picture that the candle on the left (the thicker wick) has a taller flame and even though the candle started out taller, it is now shorter. The bigger wick is burning faster. It also smoked more.

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By hour 4 it was just down to the candle with the smaller wick. It lasted a total of 5 1/2 hours. And I only trimmed the wick twice. There was very little smoking with this one, even when the wick was longest.

I think we have a winner!

And, yes, the only thing I did to this wick was dip it in wax. How’s that for minimalist candle making? 🙂

I made five more jar candles to test my theory that the main thing that affects the burnability of these wicks is that they are centered and straight rather than anything they may or may not be treated with. If they are straight, maybe they well stay upright easier. I figured out a way to keep the wicks centered and straight. I also figured out a new wick stand that is easier to use as well as reusable. But more on that tomorrow. For more, I’m tired and off to bed!

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121

Daily Life #16 – Volunteer work and More Candle Testing

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As a family, we believe is very important to give back to the community. Since we are so blessed, we have no reason not to. One of the things the girls and I do is help to pack lunches for a homeless shelter every month. That’s what we did this morning.

We packed 50 lunches. Each lunch had a sandwich, a bag of chips, a piece of fruit, a dessert, and a bottle of water. Also, we add a note of encouragement, often made by the kids, to hopefully brighten someone’s day. I love that because we homeschool, Princess Girl is able to help out on days like this. The lessons she learns while helping those less fortunate is just as important, as book learning.

Today was also day #2 of candle testing. And after the standout results from yesterday, I was rather disappointed in how they performed today.

Today, I used one wick made out of a different string material only coated in wax, one wick made out of the same salt solution as yesterday, and I made a wick from the 48hr borax soak, only I twisted two strands together before waxing them.

So, let’s get this party started!

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Lighting them up

 

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One hour burn time

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2 hrs burn time, after re-lighting the salt wick

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two and a half hours burn time – all three wicks are falling over 😦

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4 hour burn time. Had to baby them quite a bit the last two hours or so to keep them burning.

I think the pictures speak for themselves. I think the main reason is that the wicks keep falling over. As the wax melts there is not much support for to hold the wick upright. I was hoping that the thicker string wouldn’t fall over as easily. Or the doubled borax string. And since the salt wick did so well yesterday, I was disappointed to see that it did not do that well today. It actually did the worst today.

As I experiment with these and work on them, I am figuring some things out. Like it may depend more on the straightness of the wick more than what it is soaked in. I have a hard time getting the wick to stay in place when I pour in the wax. Yes, I know there are things you can buy to keep the wicks in place, but remember, I’m trying to do this with the minimum possible supplies. And namely things I might have around the house. And so far, I’m not seeing any real difference in how the wicks burn according to smoke rate and/or flame height and/or burn time. As long as the wicks stay upright, they all seem to burn the same.

So, in the next couple of days, I plan to work on the problem some more. I have a couple of ideas, so I’ll keep you updated.