Tag Archives: Homestead Kids

Christmas sewing

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

Camping out

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We’re spending some time in Nevada camping out on the homestead. We used our time today to get our trailer put back into livable order. It had become a catch all for storage and we want it ready so that when we come down from Oregon to work on the house, we have a place to stay on the property.

And speaking of the house plans, we meet with our Residential Designer tomorrow! We’re finally almost done with the engineering phase! Next will be the permitting phase. Lord willing it will go quickly. We’d love to be able to get the footings done and the main shell of the building put up this winter. But if this winter is as bad as all the forecasters are predicting, there won’t we any building going on. I guess it would be a good trade off. In the grand scheme of things, an extra 6 months to build our house is worth it if we get the snow we so desperately need.

Flower Girl passed out on the living room floor after a busy morning of getting reacquainted with the homestead.

Found this checklist from when we first bought the trailer. It is a huge accomplishment that nearly everything on that list is marked off (and most of the “want”s we decided to either wait on or just forego all together.)

We decided we needed a little treat tonight. I didn’t even look at the ingredients. I know there’s a bunch of stuff in there I usually choose not to eat or feed to my family. But every once in a while life demands cookie dough ice cream.

And the four of us sitting on our recently cleared off back bed in our home-away-from-home on our own property seemed like one of those times. 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll try to get some more pictures of the trailer and our newest member of the family, who just happens to be an older member of the family.

Stay tuned!

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

Preserving the harvest

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There is a house in our neighborhood which is vacant and for sale. In the back yard stands two apple trees and five (yes 5!) plum trees.

Last year I got permission from the owner/tenant to pick their apples since it was obvious by the number of apples on the ground that they were not going to be doing anything with them.

This year I called the realtor and he gave us permission to take all the fruit we want.

Yay!

So I’ve been supplying us with plums to snack on for a couple weeks now. And I’ve had a basket of apples sitting in the corner waiting for me to do something with them.

Then two days ago a friend gave me some cucumbers and zucchini that she had left over after making all the pickles and relish she wanted.

So today, I sat down with my recipe books and a pad of paper and made some lists.

Apples : make into cider
Cucumbers: pickle them
Zucchini: shred and freeze
Plums: unknown (I don’t care for plum jam/jelly. What else is there to do with plums?)

As you can see, I had some research to do. I finally decided to make plum butter amd a plum bbq sauce. But first we gotta go pick the plums!

Fist on the agenda for the day was to make the pickles since they are best when the cukes are fresh and they were already 4 das old.

I’m not going to give a tutorial on how to make pickles. There are already a million of them out there, and I followed the instructions from the Ball Blue Book (one of my go-to canning guides). The only thing I changed is that I left out the sugar. I mean, really. Dill pickles do not need sugar!

However I did want to mention one tidbit that might be handy. The instructions say to tie the spices in a bag. I’ve heard that you can use a tea bag (the kind you buy empty and put loose leaf tea in to steep). But I don’t have any of those lying around, besides, I don’t like to use disposable if I can help it. You can tie the spices up in a square of cheesecloth or fabric, but that just seems awkward. What I’ve done for years now is use panty hose.

Yep, I purchased a cheap pair specifically for this purpose so they had never been worn. I gave them a good washing. Snipped off the foot portion and tied a knot in the end. Then I just fill the tube with the spices and knot the other end.

Because the fabric is so stretchy, when it is time to clean, it is a simple task to unknot it, turn it inside out over the compost bucket, and then rinse and wash. And since it is nylon, it dries almost instantly, too.

So once I had the pickles all canned, it was time to deal with the apples. The Hubby and Princess Girl helped cut them up. Because they were so wormy we only got about half of each apple for the pot. The wormy parts went into a bucket to be fed to the chickens. No waste that way.

I put them on the stove to cook a bit and while they were heating, Princess Girl and I attacked the zucchini.

I shredded, she packed. We put approximately two cups into each bag since that’s what most of my recipies tend to call for.

We did not blanch the zucchini. I have seen directions that call for it, but in my experience, it has never made a difference in the end product.

I got called away to help Mom with some stuff and when I came back I found that the apples on the stove had cooked down to apple sauce!

I realized I had cooked them too long to make cider, so I changed my plans and decided to make apple butter instead. Unfortunately, all the peels were still in there. I know some people cook their apple butter with the peels on and they eventually break down into the sauce, but I believe that lends a bitter taste to the sauce and resulting butter. So, I strained out the peels.

(Gotta teach Princess Girl how to take clearer pictures!)

I spooned the peely sauce into a mesh strainer and by tapping the strainer “ears” on the rim of the bowl and stirring the sauce in the strainer, I got most of the sauce separated from the peels.

Another of Princess Girl's photos

Even though the apples were not real sweet, the sauce is some of the best I’ve made. I think that is because usually I use the Victorio strainer and it mashes the peels up and strains them out. And while the peels don’t end up in the final product, I think some of their flavor does.

Princess Girl told me I have to keep this picture and post it. 🙂

At any rate, I got all the peels strained out of the sauce (more food for the chickens!) And ended up with 10 cups of sauce which I put in the slow cooker with some cinnamon and clove. I will let it cook over night.

I have to buy some honey tomorrow to use as the sweetener since we don’t have enough at the moment.

Princess Girl helped me finish up the zucchini and get the bags ready for the freezer.

Twelve pints of pickles canned, 6 bags of zucchini in the freezer, and apple butter cooking in the slow cooker. I’d say it was a productive day.

And tomorrow we go pick apples and plums.

I love harvest season and knowing that I am providing healthy food for my family. And it’s especially great when I get that food for free!

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.

🙂

Stressed

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Hey there.

How are ya?

It’s been a while, I know.

Sorry about that.

Been a little crazy in our life lately.

In fact, I just added it up. In the last 6 months, I’ve traveled back to Nevada 5 times. That’s traveling nearly once a month! And they weren’t weekend trips either (well, one was). We’re talking about being gone from home for over a week, sometimes closer to two weeks!

In fact, I’m sitting in my mom’s living room in Nevada right now. Been in town three days already, and not leaving for another week.

Why have I done all that traveling? Good question. All but two of those trips were for work. But even when we came back down for other reasons, I still managed to get in some work days.

Normally I can do most of my job (about 5 hrs a week) from home on the computer. But every once in a while, the ropes challenge course I work for in Nevada needs their office manager actually IN the office. Or on the course. So the girls and I, and sometimes the hubby, pack up and make the 12 hour drive back to our second home. Who ever heard of a 600 mile commute?

To say that I’ve been busy this year is an understatement. No wonder Princess Girl got behind on her book work in school.

But, we’re trying to build a house, right? So’s I gotta make some money. Could I find a job in Oregon and cut out the monthly travel? Sure, but the ropes course needs me, and we want to see friends and family anyway, so here I am.

But it does get stressful being gone from home so much. Or is it that I like being in Nevada better and hate having to go back to Oregon after every trip?

At any rate, here we are in Nevada once again. The other evening, Flower Girl and I went up to Castle Rock with 7 gallons of water to put on our trees.

The trees were fairly stressed after having gone nearly a month in the middle of summer without anyone but God watering them. Considering that, however, they actually looked pretty good.

I thought they’d be crispier than they were. But then, it has been an unusually wet summer here in Nevada (while the Pacific Northwest is drying out in a particularly dry summer. Go figure!)

As the water jug was emptying onto the trees (slowly so the water would soak in, not run off), I took a hoe to the house pad. Weeds were starting to pop up quite a bit and we want to keep a handle on them.

I felt bad knocking down the Blazing Star flowers. I love their delicate beauty, yes, but more than that, I saw quite a few bees buzzing around them. And we all know that bees are our friends. But we are pretty serious about wanting to keep the house pad weed free, so I was merciless. Besides, there are plenty more lining the driveway.

And speaking of the driveway, I attacked it a bit with the hoe, too.

All those weeds in the right hand tire track used to be in the middle of the drive. I cut them out with the hoe, but I didn’t have the energy to come back and throw them all over the hillside. Not to mention the fact that I did not have gloves and these are nothing but green tumbleweeds (ie pokey!). They’ll dry out and the wind will take care of them for me. 🙂

And then it was time for “The Show”. That’s what my parents always called a particularly spectacular sunset. And, boy, was it ever spectacular!

Flower Girl and I were only on the homestead for about an hour, but it was enough to help ease the stress I’ve been feeling lately. (And, of course, the stress of the trees, too, since they finally got watered again ;-). )

Just wishing the Hubby and Princess Girl could have been there with us. They both stayed back in Oregon since we don’t want to leave Mom and Dad totally alone again so soon after our last time gone in July, and Princess Girl went to summer camp for her first time (how is she so grown up?)

And speaking of the homestead (’cause, ya know, that’s what I’ve been talking about this whole time), look what we got!

No, not really official blueprints yet. More like the preliminary plans just to see it on paper. But it’s from a real residential designer and looks all official and everything! It’s an big step forward in our plans for building on Castle Rock. We’re hoping that the next time we come back to Nevada we’ll have actual, real live, ready-to-take-to-the-building-department blueprints.

Exciting stuff right there!

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

Not all what you see

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I read a great article from Mother of a Hubbard today that really spoke to me. Here on the internet, it is so easy, and really kinda necessary, to present our selves and our situations in the best light possible while still being real (at least I try to be real).

But all you ever see is half the story. The good side. After the mess has been cleaned up – or at least hidden from view.

I, on the other hand, have to live with the other half as well. I have to live with the messes and tantrums and stress of not having enough time in the day. And sometimes, it seems that the other half – that oh, so messy half – is closer to the whole than a half.

But then beauty happens. And when beauty happens, I feel the urge to share that with everyone. So, all you ever see is the best picture out of the 20 I took. Or the fun times. Or the happy, helpful kids. Or the successes in the garden. Because, who really wants to talk (or read) about the not-so-fun stuff anyway?

But you know what?

Even though there are times that are messy and chaotic with dishes piling up in the sink, poopy diapers which need to be changed, chicken coops needing to be cleaned, children waiting to be taught, all-natural DIY everything to be made, gardens to be tended, family and friends to cook for and spend time with, etc, etc, etc – it is still so very much worth living this lifestyle.

Because beauty happens. All you have to do is look for it.

And suddenly, the other half of life – that oh, so messy half – tends to not seem quite so large afterall.
—————————
Just a few things over the last week which have been beautiful.

And just as a small insight to what you see online, here’s the picture I eventually posted on Facebook a couple days ago.

But in order to get that one picture, there were many that looked like this….

And this…

And even this…

Or this…

Because, let’s face it, a 2 year old is not a very good photographer.

But then again, considering it was my 2 year old taking the pictures, maybe they are beautiful after all. Thus why I have such a hard time deleting them. 😉

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

Blessed Saturday

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Been out working in my garden this beautiful Saturday morning. Moving containers around, watering, thinning, etc. All while still in my pajamas. 😉

Now I’m getting ready to plant some more bush beans and a few other things in containers. And finally pot the rest of the petunias which were supposed to be Princess Girl’s but she lost interest.

Flower Girl has been helping me water.

And eating some more carrot thinnings. 🙂

It’s a glorious day here in the Pacific Northwest. I hope your Saturday is blessed no matter the weather where you are.

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

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.)

Garden Plot Update #2

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Our first garden visitor!

So, I mentioned before that we planted our seeds on Feb 17th. What I didn’t show are our garden markers. I have used popsicle/craft sticks before with so-so results. Oh one hand they are cheap and easy to use. You write the veggie on the end and stick it in the ground. But I found that the sun and rain fades the lettering after a couple months. Just fine if you only want to know which row you planted your carrots vs onions in until they grow and you can tell them apart by their leaves. Not so good if you want to permanently mark your 4 different varieties of tomatoes so you can remember which type is which when it comes time for harvest. So, I thought I’d try a little experiment.

First, I wrote the info on the stick as usual. I used both sides. The front has what it is. The back has the expected harvest date so I can remind myself when I’m out in the garden and don’t have to refer back to my packets or journal

Then, I coated the end of the stick in clear nail polish. The polish soaked into the stick and dried very quickly, so I am hoping it will keep the letters from fading. At least until I can remember which variety of lettuce I planted where! I guess we’ll just have to see how it does.

And there’s the newly planted (and marked!) garden.

A friend of mine expressed some skepticism about planting so early in the season, but here’s one of the reasons I wasn’t concerned. I have shower doors! And they fit almost perfectly on my new bed. I guess this means I have a cold frame. I’m still working on a system to cover the gap in the middle, but for now, they work admirably.

They help heat up the soil during the day to give my little plants a boost, and they hold in just enough heat at night that the slight frosts we’ve had don’t touch the seedlings (even though everything that I have planted right now can tolerate lights frosts.)

And, if it gets really cold, the doors make it a cinch to cover the bed.

They are easily propped open so that I can work in there or to let out excess heat in case we have some really warm sunny days (hahaha! warm sunny days in the springtime in the Pacific Northwest? I crack myself up!)

Wait, what was I just saying about warm, sunny days??

At any rate, the shower doors also serve two more VERY important roles. One, they keep the free-ranging hens out of my seedlings!

And two, they provide the perfect table for a two year old to play with her dinosaurs and a pail of water. 🙂

Stay warm everyone. And God bless!

Castle Rock Homestead

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

Tag Archives: Homestead Kids

Christmas sewing

Another day on the homestead

Camping out

Preserving the harvest

Summer Doings

Stressed

Not all what you see

Blessed Saturday

How to preserve marigolds the “easy” way

Garden Plot Update #2

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