Tag Archives: Family

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 #12 – Handmade with love

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I love that man of mine! Every day, all day. But there are times when he does something which just melts my heart an extra bit.

Like what’s happening right now.

We are not really what you would call sports fans. But we do like to watch the Super Bowl. So in preparation for tomorrow’s game, my wonderful husband is sitting down explaining football to Princess Girl so she can follow along easier.

Be still my heart!

Yeah, I know it’s not much. But one sure way to this girl’s heart is through her children. Not only that, but I just love seeing a man being a good daddy.

And speaking of love, Valentine’s day is just around the corner.

I am almost finished with Hubby’s Valentine gift. In an effort to stick with our new, healthier ways of eating, we have decided to forgo the candy this year (I know, it’s almost sacrilegious to not have chocolate on Valentine’s day, but I think I’ll survive. Maybe.)

Anyway, I came up with some inexpensive and easy gift the girls and I can make for our main man. I wish I could show it to you right now. But it will have to wait.

I also started another bookmark for a special someone. This one is extra special since there is no printer involved. I’m drawing and coloring by hand. And I’m actually excited about how it’s turning out.

Working on these things by hand is so much more personal than just buying something from the store. No, they don’t cost much, and may not look as nice as something you can buy of the shelf, but each one is infused with love.

And speaking of love, you know what else makes my heart melt?

My three year old washing the last of the carrots from the garden. I was able to start her on the task and walk away to finish other tasks. Yes, she took forever, but she did the job and did it well. When did she get so big??

And, for those of you who have been around for a while, yes, these are the last of the carrots which we planted from seed last February. They are oddly misshapen, I think because they stopped growing over the summer, and then started growing again this fall. They overwintered wonderfully in the garden. WAY better than they would have if I had picked them. One of the reasons I live growing carrots in this area!

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 day #3 – just a normal day

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Day 3 of my month of Daily Life posts. Not much happened. Today was one of those days I seemed to be busy all day, but didn’t get anything tangible accomplished like yesterday. I was planning on working some more outside, but I’m not feeling very well today.

I cooked three breakfasts at different times (mine at 7am, the girls’ at 8:30am, and Mom’s at 9:30am.) Took care of Mom while Dad went to breakfast with friends and then worked outside in the yard. Let the chickens out of the run to roam. Started laundry (which reminds me, I need to go switch loads.) Ummm… I’m sure there was more between breakfast and lunch. After lunch I took Flower Girl for a walk around the block.

She’s finally learned to pedal her tricycle all by herself.

Then it was home and some computer work. Helped Princess Girl with some of her school work. My wonderful Hubby made dinner, which was awesome. Then I laid on the couch and vegged with the girls and my man.

So you know, a normal, mundane type of day.

I should have done more actual work on the computer (you know, rather than Pinterest). I should have gotten up to vacuum since our vacuum was in the shop for several days and the carpets are nasty! I should have switched laundry around several more times and put clothes away. I should have documented some ideas I have for the homestead.

But it didn’t happen.

And I’m ok with that. It’s not every day I have a legitimate reason to take it easy.

And I know that realistically not every day can be blog worthy (though I seem to be doing a pretty good job of turning it into one. 😉 )

But that’s life.

At least that’s my life.

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

Happy New Year

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I know, I know.

I’m a little late with my holiday greetings. But as I said in my family newsletter (which I just sent out a few days ago), better late than never, right?

I’ve been doing a lot of reflection the past couple of weeks, as is typical this time of year. And also looking toward the future of this year. Are any of you already planning for your spring and summer gardens? Now’s the time to order your seeds and in some cases, get them started indoors.

I just read this online article (How to Pick Your Vegetable Seeds Without Going Crazy) and it’s got me dreaming!

But alas, my biggest decision this year is that I am scaling way back on my plans for our garden. Any when you have a tiny plot anyway, “scaling way back” means that I don’t plan to do much of any gardening this year.

The reason why is actually pretty exciting. We are hoping to be in the process of actually building our house this summer. Which means frequent trips between Oregon and Nevada. And as I learned last year, my garden doesn’t do so well if I’m not around to care for it. Imagine that. 🙂

So, I’ll probably throw some carrot seeds in the ground and call it good. Those were what did the best and we ate the most of last year. And I love that they are frost tolerant and you can leave them in the ground all season and just go out and grab some as you need them.

It kills me not to really be making plans for the garden. But the trade off is worth it as we make progress on our house.

A couple days ago was a fairly mild day here in the Portland area, overcast but dry and not too cold. So I used the opportunity to get outside and do some yard work.

Almost done! And it’s a good thing, too, because the debris can is almost full!

I scooped up the walnut leaves and put them in the yard debris can. Yes, we have a compost pile, but not the right set up to cook the toxins out of walnut leaves.

Just after New Years, we had snow here. It was a rare treat for us in the Pacific Northwest. Normally, any time there’s snow here, it’s covered in ice. This was a light, fluffy, “dry” snow. At the beginning of the day it wouldn’t even compact into snowballs. The girls and I spent 3 hours playing outside.

Going for a walk in the neighborhood

snow angels in the street, because, why not?

Exploring in the park woods near our house

The wild onions are already growing! And the snow didn’t seem to affect them at all.

Our back yard looked quite different with a thin layer of snow.

A light powdery snow covering the backyard

My little 25sqft garden with the caterpillar eaten kale and aphid eaten brussels sprouts, neither of which did I harvest much of because I was too busy to deal with the pests.

Snow dusted honeysuckle vines

And then, that night, a freezing rain came in, covering everything in a layer of ice.

Same honeysuckle just 24 hours later

Icicles on the EZ-Up

Iced fence

Iced branches

A really cool ice leaf found by Flower Girl.

For this girl from the desert, ice storms are pretty magical. It is surreal to see ice coating everything. However, I am glad no one in our family had to go anywhere. One of those times I am thankful that my man works from home.

The hens don’t mind a bit of snow.

We had a bit of sad news recently. One of our hens (“Pepper”) was killed by a predator of some sort. Considering it was during the middle of the day in broad daylight, we think it was one of the many neighborhood cats.

Flower Girl with Pepper this past spring.

Now we’re down to three hens, one of which doesn’t lay very many eggs per year and none in the winter (our English Game Hen). The other two, however, have laid fairly steadily this winter (after their molt), even without supplemental lighting (for more information on supplemental light in the chicken coop, see this great article from Jill at The Prairie Homestead). I would love to add to our little backyard flock, but then I think of how much we are hoping to be gone this summer. And I think of transporting them back to Nevada when we do finally go. And I think, three chickens is enough. For now. 🙂

And in the mean time, we’re dreaming. We’re dreaming big!

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

Heritage recipes

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Ok, so technically, only one of the recipes in this post can classify as “heritage” (ie being passed down from generation to generation basically unchanged), but I did get them both from my mom, so maybe that does count.

It’s been a rainy, dreary week here in the Pacific Northwest. Add to that the fact that the girls have been sick and now I am with a chest cold, and it’s been a week of soups for dinner. Chicken stew made by the hubby. Clam chowder requested by the Princess. Split pea because we had a ham bone which needed to be used. It’s been a cozy, comfort food kinda week.

And last night was no exception. As I was dozing on the couch that afternoon (such a luxury – one I ever only get when I’m sick!) I got a hankerin’ for my Mom’s chili.

Now, her chili is nothing special. It’s really easy to make. No special prep. It uses mostly canned ingredients, and it’s only the teeniest bit spicy. But for those of us who are whimps when it comes to spicy foods, it’s just about perfect. In fact, it’s the only chili one of my brothers willingly eats. I grew up eating this chili, paired with a tall glass of milk, and a large slice of cornbread made using my great, great grandmother’s recipe.

Oh, it’s heavenly!

So, without further ado, I give you my mom’s no frills, easy chili recipe, along with my great, great grandma’s cornbread recipe – because what good is chili without cornbread to eat with it?

Mom’s Easy Chili
Ingredients:
1-1.5lbs of ground beef
1large onion diced
Season salt to taste
2 cans stewed tomatoes
2 cans beans
3-4 Tbl chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tsp cumin
1.5 cups water (or more if simmering for a while)

Directions:
Place the meat in a soup pot with the diced onion and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Cook until meat is brown and onions are translucent. Drain off grease if desired. Drain and rinse the canned beans. Add all of the ingredients to the pot and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer as long as desired, adding more water if too much evaporates.

Notes:
-My mom often used venison in place of the beef since we were a hunting family. You can use whatever meat you have on hand.
-I typically use diced tomatoes rather than stewed since I have a large stock of diced and never remember to buy stewed.
-Traditionally my mom used kidney beans, but I use pinto and/or red beans since canned kidney beans have added sugar. Of course you can use freshly prepared dry beans if desired.

While the chili is simmering, it’s time to put together this yummy cornbread. As I said before, this recipe comes down from my great, great grandmother, which means it is at least 100 years old. A true heritage recipe.

I think this cornbread is the perfect cornbread out there. Corn-mealy without being too crumbly or cakey. Moist but not gooey. And just enough sugar to make it sweet without being dessert.

Grandma’s Cornbread Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (or honey)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour milk (see notes)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. Add the sour milk and mix thouroughly. Pour into an 8×8 casserole dish (or a cast iron pan if you want to be really traditional) and bake for 30 minutes.

Notes:
-My grandma (who got this recipe from her grandma) always used buttermilk for this recipe. I never have buttermilk on hand, so I make my own sour milk by adding 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to one cup of milk and allowing to sit for 5 minutes. Works perfect.
-Since I do not eat wheat, I have been experimenting with gluten free alternatives to the flour. Most recently, in place of the 1 cup flour I have been using 1/2 cup almond flour and 1/2 cup gluten free baking mix (made primarily with rice flour). I use the almond meal primarily to lower the carb count. If you use almond meal, lower the cooking temperature to 375 degrees.
-I have also replaced the processed sugar with honey to great results.
-Before I started tampering with the ingredients, sometimes I would add a can of creamed corn. This made it exceptionally moist, which we all loved. I do not know how it would turn out with the ingredient substitutions I now use. Maybe I’ll have to try one of these days. 🙂

Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoy! I certainly did.

In fact, I’m having left over chili for lunch today. Unfortunately, the cornbread was wolfed down so fast last night that not only is there none left for today, but I didn’t even get a picture.

However, writing about my grandma put me in a nostalgic mood, so along with my chili, I’m having diced peaches with “smear case.”

Grandma never could tell me why her family called cottage cheese “smear case.” But in her later life, cottage cheese and diced fruit was one of her favorite foods. So, here’s to Grandma!

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

Seamstresses in the making

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Why, yes. I do let my nearly-three-year-old play with my sewing pins.

Just as I let her sister before her when she was young. And now Princess Girl loves designing.

Sewing is a big part of a sustainable lifestyle. When purchased thriftily, buying fabric can be much cheaper than buying ready-made items if you have the know-how. But sewing is so much more useful than making your own clothing from scratch.

Mending a blanket.

Being able to repair those things which you already own is a first step toward living sustainably.

And you don’t need to tons of fancy gadgets and gizmos. A simple machine and a rudimentary knowledge of a few techniques will get you a long way. I myself have a rather simple machine.

I only ever use a couple of the available settings. But it serves me well.

If you have a machine but learning to use it is a daunting task, find a friend who can help you. (It’s hard to learn sewing from the internet unless you already know how to handle your particular machine since they are all a bit different.) As stated above, you don’t need to know how to use every setting on your machine. You basically just need to know how to thread it, how to load and refill the bobbin, how to do the straight stitch and zig zag stitch, and what the length, width, and tension dials do. You can do an awful lot of sewing with those basic skills. And as you practice more and become more comfortable, you can start learning all the other things your particular machine can do.

If you don’t have a sewing machine and can’t afford even a basic one, at least learn how to hand sew. Knowing a few easy stitches can be the difference between repairing that blanket and buying a new one, or paying someone to hem your pants or doing it yourself. And hand sewing is easy to learn from videos on the internet.

And remember, if children can learn to do it, you can, too!

Let’s hear you chime in. Do you think that sewing is an important skill to know? Do you know how? Wanting to learn?

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

Christmas sewing

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Alright, alright! I’ll admit it.

I’m a fabric junky.

There’s a picture floating around Facebook of fabric being stored oh-so-neatly in a filing cabinet drawer.

Here’s what I said about it.

Yes, I actually chuckled when I saw that picture. There’s no way my stash of fabric could ever be that neatly organized. I have too much. It would take 5 whole filing cabinets! The yardages I have are too big. Some of my fabric pieces would nearly fill their own drawer by themselves. Or they are too small.

And yet, I WISH my stash could look like that.

Oh wait. That’s right.

I don’t HAVE a stash!

At least, not here in Oregon.

And not really in Nevada either.

When we moved into our trailer on the homestead last year, I downsized drastically. My “stash” consists of three boxes (albeit two big ones and a medium one). And you know where those three are?

That’s right. They are in Nevada. Awaiting the day when our house is built and I have a sewing area again.

In the mean time, I have a million ideas running around my head of things I want to sew, especially Christmas gifts.

So, I went shopping. I went with one project in mind.

Here’s what I ended up with:

I couldn’t help myself. All this fabric was only $15!

Yep, though they are all sheets, it turned out to be about $1 per yard. Pretty good deal, I’d say.

How, you ask?

Thrift store.

And not the overpriced big name ones either. A small, locally owned store in our neighborhood. The type of store where the proprietor is willing to give you a deal on things because she knows that money earned is better than items sitting on the shelf.

So what am I going to make with all that fabric? Well, I can’t tell you. Most of it is for Christmas gifts, afterall. And I know the intended recipients read this blog.

However, I can say that the purple fleece will become three matching pairs of pajama pants for the girls and I, to be given on Christmas eve. I’ve been wanting matching jammies for us for a long time and almost bought a set online the other day. But couldn’t quite shell out the $32 + shipping it would have cost. And buying fabric from a traditional fabric store wouldn’t cost much less.

So, $5 and a little work, and I’ve got them.

Thrifting for the win!

What about you? How do you save money when it comes to Christmas gifts? Do you make your own?

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

Another day on the homestead

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I can’t believe it. I spent an hour last night writing this post (while being distracted by the homesteading videos Hubby was watching on Youtube) and when I went to publish it, it was just gone! Grrr…technology sometimes!

At any rate, I wanted to share about our last couple days on the homestead before we came back to Oregon.

Oh, it was simply wonderful to be back in the wide open spaces, with only the sounds of nature around us. To sit for hours with the Hubs and just talk and dream of our plans for the house and homestead.

We’re hoping that when we go back in December, that we’ll be able to stay in the trailer again. But then again, we’re hoping that Nevada has so much snow that we can’t even get up our driveway. They need moisture so horribly. I guess we’ll see.

Oh, before I forget, let me introduce you to our new/old membet of the family.

This is Obsidian (ie Sid). He’s a 6 year old black lab whom we’ve had since he was just 7 weeks old. But, for the last year, he’s been staying with friends in Nevada. When we had to move so unexpectedly, it was just too much to try to figure out how to bring him with us. But we have some wonderful friends who offered to take him for us.

Well, a couple months ago, their circumstances changed and they could no longer keep him for us. So, the Hubby and I talked it over with Mom and Dad and we decided that we were in a position to bring him to Oregon to live with us.

And so now we have a very large dog living in our small back yard. But we play ball with him. And take him for walks. And so far, he’s adjusted well. Scooter is not sure what to think of him, and the cat just avoids him. But eventually they’ll all be friends.

So, that’s Sid. We can’t wait till we are all back on the homestead and he can roam free again.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program (yes, I’m aware I don’t actually post regularly :-). Here’s how we kept ourselves busy our last couple days at Castle Rock:

Cooking in the outdoor kitchen. Because even though we did hook up the propane to the trailer, who wants to be cooped up inside on a beautiful day?

Playing. Our girls LOVE swings! And I love that our carport frame is sturdy enough they can play on it.

More playing. We call this area next to the driveway “the Sandbox”. The sand there is only a bit more coarse than beach sand.

Taking some time to just relax and take in the view.

Playing with bugs…well, their casings at least.

This is the shell of a cicada. At some point in their lifecycle, they shed their exoskeleton.

Do they remind anyone else of aliens? And they are everywhere! The more you look for their shells, the more you find. On branches. In bushes. On the ground. It must have been a noisy summer on the homestead!

As an aside, for those of you who might be wondering, this is our bathroom while we’re at the property. Not looking forward to using that in the middle of December if we are able to stay in the trailer while we’re there.

The Hubby decided to repurpose an old gas grill. After gutting it and cleaning it, he made it into…

…a GRILL! yeah, yeah, it still functions with the same purpose. So not really REpurposing. But now it is a charcoal, rather than a gas, grill.

And it worked great. Look at all that meat! Good thing we had a bunch a family over to help us eat that.

That night we had a spectacular sunset.

Signs of fall on the homestead. Our apple trees have survived the summer. Here’s hoping we get a super winter to keep them hydrated.

Princess Girl is such a good helper. I can’t believe she’s almost 10.

It was a great several days on the homestead. A time to dream, a time to rest, and a time to plan.

And now we’re back in Oregon. Now it’s time to concentrate on schooling for the girls. And working on some canning projects I’ve needed to do fo a while now.

Ahhh…fall. I’m looking forward to cooler weather, soups, canning, and baking.

*sigh*

I love this time of year.

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

Summer Doings

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I know I’ve been horrible at posting for months.

So, what have we been up to this summer?

Take a look and see!

We went camping:

We traveled to Nevada to work, see family, and spend time on the Homestead (click or hover over pictures to see captions):

preventative maintenance on the drainage ditches so they don’t wash out the driveway.

My little helper

Can you see the orange markings on the dirt? We started laying out the house!

Tea time with my sister and nieces

Working at the Ropes Course.

We worked on house plans:

And found a building almost the exact size of the one we are going to build:It’s cool (and helpful) to see the dimensions in real life rather than on paper.

We harvested cherries from our very own cherry tree:

Dad and Flower Girl planted the garden.

Princess Girl and her BFF ran a lemonade stand and made quite a lot of money!

One of my sisters came to visit and we made raspberry jam after picking the raspberries from her extended family’s farm!

We had some weird stuff happen in the chicken coop:

We were messy like a typical 2 and a half year old (there’s STILL specks of paint in the bathroom from this!):

We had our first tomato (and a couple more since then). Mmmmmm….

We played with sparklers to celebrate the 4th of July:

We traveled back to Nevada once again, then to Missouri for a family reunion (click or hover for captions).

Nevada beauty

Our “Shuttle” van which carried 7 people to Missouri and back.

Looooong road trip (34 hours on the road!)

Full van!

It’s my restaurant! (Almost spelled it right, anyway 🙂 )

Princess Girl and some of her cousins whom she just met.

Havin’ fun out on the lake.

Missouri sunset on the White River.

Cousins having some fun!

The Castle Rock family on the salt flats in Utah.

We did other typical summer type stuff (click or hover for captions):

Handstands!

Summer camp. Princess Girl is in that crowd somewhere and this Mamma’s heart was squeezing tight at the prospect of letting go, if for only 5 days.

Playing in the fountains at a park.

Taking walks in the lush greenery of the PNW.

Hanging out on the nice shady deck in the warmth of the afternoon.

And we traveled back to Nevada once again so I can work – (click or hover for captions).

Checking on and watering out apple trees.

Hoeing the weeds out of the driveway.

Working on the ropes course.

Putting up a tipi at the ropes course.

So, you know. We’ve kept busy.

🙂

How to preserve marigolds the “easy” way

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The no-work, no-fuss way to get perfectly preserved marigold blooms:

1.) Have a child

2.) Grow Marigolds or otherwise acquire them

3.) When child is around 2 – 3 years old, buy said child a clear plastic beverage bottle

4.) Leave said child, in possession of said beverage bottle, in the care of husband

5.) Find said beverage bottle in toy box two weeks later with perfectly preserved marigold blooms inside

*Disclaimer: Author does not claim that step #1 or the intervening years between #1 and #3 is easy, only the end result of having preserved flowers, without having the do the work yourself. The author does not know why you would want to preserve your marigold blooms in such a way or how long they will last, she is just offering a unique and easy way to do it. 🙂

(This article first appeared on Maridy’s personal blog in 2008.)

Castle Rock Homestead

Off-grid homesteading in the high desert of Northern Nevada.

Tag Archives: Family

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

Daily Life #12 – Handmade with love

Daily Life day #3 – just a normal day

Happy New Year

Heritage recipes

Seamstresses in the making

Christmas sewing

Another day on the homestead

Summer Doings

How to preserve marigolds the “easy” way

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