Our Quarter-Acre Homestead Has Moved!

I have decided to rename this blog so I could broaden it't content a bit. I would love to have you come on over and check things out at Claire and Rose!

www.claireandrose.com

The Eggs Hatched!!

The eggs in the wreath on my front door have hatched! These little guys are so ugly they're cute. I will try to get pictures every couple of days so you can watch them grow with us. My kids will be so excited when they get home from their summer classes today.

Great Deal On Canning Supplies!

I have been canning for several years now and love it. I am hoping to get some canning tutorials done sometime this summer to post on here. but for today I thought I would share this deal I posted on my other blog on a pressure canner.

Currently Amazon has the Presto 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker on sale for $79.95 down from $109.99. This is a great deal just in time for canning season. I have done a lot of water bath canning, but have not been brave enough to try pressure canning yet. Since this is such a great deal on a pressure canner I may have to give it a try this summer.

If you have not yet tried canning and would like to give water bath canning a try then you might want to start with this Presto 09995 7 Function Canning Kit.


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Dryer Balls

Today I thought I would give you a quick tutorial on how I make dryer balls. I hate to buy dryer sheets because I am just going to throw them away once they are used plus I didn't like the idea of adding chemicals to my clothing just to make them soft and smell good. So for years I used nothing. I had friends who thought I was crazy and that my towels must feel like burlap. I have never dad any complaints from the family unless I line dry clothes. 

I kept seeing dryer balls on homesteading sites so about a year ago I decided to go ahead and try making my own. I called up my mother-in-law and asked if she had any leftover wool yarn from one of her many projects. She sent home a bunch of remnants and my 10 year old and I set to work making dryer balls. 

I have decided that dryer balls are wonderful! You can add your own essential oils to them to freshen your laundry. If you use 5 or 6 in a load it will not only soften your clothes, but will help cut drying time!

Here is a photo of some of what we ended up with. Sorry the picture came out so blurry, but you get the idea. Since it was May when we were making them I decided to go ahead and send some to the kids teachers along with some essential oils as an end of the year teacher gift. They were a hit. 

I did my best to get step by step pictures of how I made our dryer balls so you can get started making your own.

To get started you need to make sure you are working with 100% wool yarn or this project will not work properly. At the end you need to felt your balls. So wool is essential. 

I start my balls by simply looping some yarn around my fingers a couple of times. 

Next I wrap the yarn around the loops I just made to give me something to hang onto. The first steps can be a bit frustrating since there is not a large amount of yarn to hold.

Keep wrapping until you start to form a small ball. Then keep wrapping some more. Making sure you move the yarn around the whole ball so  it is round.

After a while you should have a good size ball. The size is really up to you. I did not make the one for this tutorial very large because I started to run out of yarn, plus I was feeling a bit lazy.

To finish off your ball take a crotchet hook and do your best to pull the yarn through the center of the ball. As you can see from this picture I looped it through the side. This is really not the best idea because it may unravel slightly. It will still work, but may not be as pretty. 

I typically pull my yarn through several time before tying it off to make sure everything is secure. 

The final step to making dryer balls is to felt them so they don't unravel in the dryer leaving you with a big mess of clumped yarn along with your clothes. To felt them you can place them in an old pair of panty hoses and tie them off to make a bag. Run the balls threw the washing machine 3-4 times. I usually just toss the bag in with a load I am washing so I am not wasting water. 

After you have washed them several times they should have felted or stuck together. Above is a picture of an unfelted ball (purple) and a felted one (green). It is hard to tell from the photo, but the purple one is much looser and the green one is tight and stuck together. 

There you have it! Easy dryer balls. Don't forget to add a couple of drops of essential oils to one before tossing it in with your laundry. My families favorite is lavender or some sort of citrus. 

Spring Cleanup

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Kansas so the family decided to get out and get some spring cleaning done in the garden and animal areas. I was so excited to finally get out and get my hands in the dirt after a long winter. I am still so thankful for the garden space the previous homeowner started. It makes getting the spring garden in this year so much easier. Just look at the great soil I get to work with. The only thing we added last fall was some old bedding we had saved from cleaning up from the chickens. Hopefully we will have a good year. 

While cleaning up the garden space we found lots of these onions growing that we did not plant. They must have been leftovers from the previous owner. I decided to go ahead and pull them to free up as much space as possible in our small garden.

We had plans to go ahead and expand the size of our garden this year, but we have not had a chance to get around to it. I may still go ahead with our plans...maybe. If I do I am sure the hens would be happy to pull their weight around here and clear an area for me if I pen them up where I want the new plot. They are great at their job. 

I told this little cutie I would pay her if she would help me pull some weeds that have already popped up. She was so excited to get to help, especially when I told her she could use the new gardening tool we inherited from my parents. Work is always more fun when you get to use a new toy. 

Ignore the mess behind her. Like I said it was cleaning day and there was stuff strung all over the place from the shed clean out. I am not sure if you can see or not, but we more then doubled the size of the chicken pen since we are not allowing them to free range as much as we have in the past. They were just too destructive in the garden last year. We will let them out if we need some clean up done. 

This is Olaf, our new puppy. We were told he is possibly part Greater Swiss Mountain dog. To be honest I am not sure what he is. The Humane Society can only give us their best guess. After looking up the breed he definitely has many of the behavior characteristics and markings. So far he has been a great guard dog and he just LOVES our kids. At 6 months old he already weighs 57 lbs! I think we have a potentially huge dog on our hands. I am excited to see how big he actually gets.

From my research this dog was bred to be a working dog. Unfortunately there is not a ton of herding to be done in my backyard. The website suggested we get him a doggie backpack to wear on walks to help him feel like he is helping. I think we will get one and see how it goes. This breed is also known for pulling carts. I am sure the kids will have no problem hooking him up to a wagon or sled in the winter so he can "help". 

The chickens were very excited about cleaning day. We kept finding lots of bugs and weeds to toss into their pen. 

                           

I have been wanting to get this shed cleaned out all winter. I hate it when things are disorganized. I was grateful to have the help of these two. My oldest does not like having a small farm in her backyard or getting her hands dirty. I just had to get a picture as proof that she does help out occasionally. If she had her way we would be living in an apartment in New York City. 

After about an hour of work I looked around and these two had disappeared. Apparently they decided it was time for a break and helped themselves to a snack. 

There is still lots of work that needs to get done, but it decided to go from 70 degrees yesterday to snowing today! You have to love spring in Kansas. I did manage to get in some radishes, spinach and lettuce in some planters on the porch. I had planned to start the snap peas and beets today, but that will have to wait until the weekend. 

Amazon: Etekcity Personal Water Filter Just $15.99

This is a post I put together for my other blog. I thought some of my readers here might be interested in this. 

If you are a camper or just like to be prepared then you need to check out this deal on the highly rated Etekcity 1500L Water Personal Filter Purifier Chemical Free: Filter to 0.01 Microns.  I have been eyeing a different brand to keep in our emergency bag, but at this price I may have to get this one.
They are currently priced at $19.99, but when you use coupon code YTGOK8MO you will get $4 off bringing your total down to $15.99. If you are a prime member you will also get free 2 days shipping. 

Order Summary

Items:	$19.99
Shipping & handling:	$0.00
Promotion Applied:	-$4.00
Total before tax:	$15.99
Estimated tax to be collected:	$0.00
Order total:	$15.99

Thanks Hip2Save

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February Homestead Update- Eggs, Garden Plans and A Year Without A Purchase

We are thinking about taking this flower garden out. It is really beautiful during the spring and summer, but it is right in the middle of our yard. I think I would prefer to give the kid more play space and myself more vegetable space. Although I may leave it for the bees. 

It's February already and that means it is officially time to start planning my spring garden!! I am planning to use the same software as last year. If you want to take a look at last year's garden you can go here to check it out. As soon as I have everything laid out I will write a post to share our plans for the year.

Unfortunately the pictures for today's post are not too spectacular, I am having issues getting my phone to send them to me so I can get them on here. I had more, but I finally gave up trying to get them off my phone.

The winter garden looks so sad. You can see in the corner some green sprouts from the garlic I planted in October.

In the winter there really is not a ton to report on in the area of homesteading. It is basically a time to relax from the hard work of summer and to plan for the next year. I like to take the down time of winter to research other small homesteads to see what I can implement into ours as well as try to learn a few new skills.



Here is a great list of small, suburban homesteading blogs in case you wanted to check them out.

--- The 104 Homestead
--- The Urban Homestead
--- Lil' Suburban Homestead

The skills I am trying to learn this year include knitting, crocheting and studying the no till method.

There is not a huge amount of productivity in the winter, but in January we had 115 eggs from our 7 hens. Not too bad.

I have also been doing some preserving when I am able to buy produce in bulk, such as the 40 pounds of pears we dried, ate, or canned in December. We were also blessed with a friend who got a deer, but did not want the meat. That was a huge blessing to help fill our freezer.


Here is a list of our future goals for this year on the homestead.

• In the picture below you can see the grassy area to the left of the garden. We are planning to use the no till method this spring to double the size of our current garden. We are going to add a pallet fence all the way around the garden to keep the chickens and children out of the plants.
• We are also planning to double the size of the chicken's fenced in area so that we can keep them fenced in all the time and stop dealing with chicken poo all over the yard getting stuck on our shoes and eventually into the house. Gross! 
• If I have my way we will be adding goats by this time next year. We have a great area near the chicken coop that would be perfect for them.
• I will take pictures as we get these projects finished and keep you updated.  

Our family also decided to embark on a new journey this year that is a bit different then the norm. I had a friend read the book The Year Without a Purchase. She mentioned it on facebook and that turned into several of us asking her questions about the book and eventually an accountability group forming.

As of January 1st our family has decided that we will not be making any purchases unless they are consumable or foster family togetherness. Basically no new clothes (except for growing kids and only if there is nothing else in the house to hand down), toys, furniture, decor...you get the picture.

I have to admit that it has taken some getting used to. There have been several times where I have absent mindedly started to buy something and then realized it doesn't fit into the rules. For instance, our chicken waterer cracked due to ice. I thought no big deal I am headed to the feed store today anyway. I will just pick up a new one, Nope not in the rules.  So I had to get creative and see what we had around that would work. I rummaged through my potting stand and found a metal planter without holes...instant waterer and it was FREE.

We have managed to save some money so far by not buying anything new, but really the whole point of the experiment is to foster togetherness as a family and to learn to really enjoy what we already have. We live in a throw away society. If it is broken just go get a new one, Don't try to fix it or do without, just buy something new.

I have actually begun to enjoy not spending money. It is nice to go into a store and not buy anything. I know it sounds strange. I have also had to learn to find other ways to entertain myself without shopping. This has included staying away from coupon blogs and tossing ads as soon as they come in the mail.

I will keep you updated as the year goes along. There will inevitably be a few purchases that we had not thought about. We also decided that if there is something we as a family really need or want we have to sell enough items around the house to cover the cost of the item or we don't get it.


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Overnight Crockpot Oatmeal

One of my favorite breakfasts is overnight crockpot oatmeal. It is so easy to make and I love waking up knowing breakfast is already made and waiting for me. 

I love to add lots of different things depending on my mood that morning or what I have on hand. In the photo above I added walnuts, chia seeds, dried cranberries and maple syrup. In the summer it is fun to add fresh berries. The kids of course would prefer chocolate chips. 

Overnight Crockpot Oatmeal

2 cups water
2 cups milk (or 1 cup almond milk 1 cup milk)
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups steal cut oats (I only had quick oats for the oatmeal above. It was still wonderful)

Put everything in the crockpot and set on low. Let cook overnight. 

30 Minute Mozzaralla

I used to think that making cheese would be much to0 difficult and one that I would not likely tackle, but after finding this 30 minute mozzarella cheese recipe I knew I had to give it a try. Now I am hooked and am trying to find more cheese recipes to try. 

The first time I tried making this I will admit that it took way longer then 30 minutes. Basically because I was trying to figure out how everything worked and trying to make sure I didn't mess anything up. 

This time it took me almost exactly 30 minutes. I realized that I had not budgeted my time well when I started and that I was going to have to leave in about 30-40 minutes to pick my son up from preschool. Since I had already added the citric acid to the milk I was committed and couldn't stop or I would ruin the whole batch. 

30 Minutes Mozzarella Cheese

1 gallon milk
1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid mixed in 1/2 cup filtered water
1/4 teaspoon double strength rennet mixed in 1/4 cup filtered water
1 teaspoon salt 

To get started pour 1 gallon of milk into a large stainless steel pot. Do NOT use aluminum or your cheese will not likely form. 

Since we do not have any dairy goats yet (if I can't talk the hubby into it we may never have them) I went ahead and used some milk from the grocery store. I prefer to use full fat for cheese, but any kind will work. 

To make the cheese you will need to buy citric acid for cheese making and rennet. Without these 2 items you can not make cheese. I prefer to use vegetable rennet because knowing where regular rennet comes from bothers me even though I am not a vegetarian. Here is the best place to find citric acid and rennet. 

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons to 1/2 cup filtered water. Filtered water is very important. Most tap water has chlorine in it which reacts with the citric acid and may cause your cheese to fail. It would make me so sad to go to all the work of making my own cheese only to have it fail because I used tap water. 

After you have your citric acid and water mixed add it to the milk and stir well. 

Now turn your stove on to about medium heat and slowly heat the milk and citric acid to between 90 and 95 degrees. To check the temperature of my milk I went the cheap route and used my children's thermometer that had a surface temperature setting. Ideally I should be using a candy thermometer or meat thermometer. 

Once your milk is warm enough turn the heat off. 

Next stir 1/4 teaspoon of double strength rennet or 1/2 teaspoon regular rennet into 1/4 cup filtered water. 

Pour the rennet water mixture into the warmed milk through a slotted spoon if possible to help the rennet distribute more evenly. 

Stir the milk well to incorporate the rennet into the milk.

Cover and let sit with the heat turned off for 5 minutes. 

Once five minutes have passed your milk should have separated into curds and whey. Take a long knife and cut the curds in a grid pattern to help break them up. 

Turn the heat back onto medium and heat the curds and whey to 105 degrees. 

Once they reach 105 degrees turn the heat off again. 

Next take a slotted spoon and spoon the curds into a strainer to separate the curds and whey. 

Sorry this photo is upside down. I could not get it to flip for some reason, but it gets the point across. Push all the excess whey out of your curds. 

Next take the curds and warm them in either VERY hot 185 degree water or warm in the microwave for about a minute. I cheated and used my hot whey because I was short on time. Not the best idea because you want to rinse as much whey out of your cheese as you can to help it keep longer. 

Once your curds are very hot (you may want to wear rubber gloves for this part) you need to start stretching your cheese. When you try to stretch it if it breaks it is not hot enough. It should start to get shiny and stretch like taffy. Curds are stretchable when they are 135 degrees.

Keep stretching until all the cheese is stretchable. 

Mine could have been stretched more, but like I said I was in a hurry.

After you have finished stretching your cheese sprinkle about 1 teaspoon iodine free salt onto a counter and kneed it into the cheese. 

This is a very important step. If your cheese doesn't have salt in it it will not taste very good. It will still be edible, just a little flavorless. 

In the summer I plan to add fresh herbs and sun dried tomatoes to my mozzarella. I can't wait!!

You should have about 3/4 of a gallon of whey left when you are finished. Don't toss it! It can be used in any baking recipe that calls for milk. Our dogs and chickens also love it.

Cold and Flu Fighting Honey Lemon Ginger Tea

Last week my daughter was fighting a nasty cold with a fever and congestion. I made her this tea and forced it down her. Within 24-48 hours she was feeling much better. She said the tea was a bit spicy for her due to the ginger, but I made her at least drink a little bit of it. 

I also gave her several doses of Cold Calm. I can not say enough good things about Cold Calm. I LOVE it. Whenever someone in my home needs to kick a cold fast this is my go to. 

I decided to drink several cups of tea myself to prevent catching her cold. So far so good. 

Ginger and honey are both wonderful antivirals that will help support the body when it is trying to fight off a cold or the flu. Not to mention ginger is an anti-inflammatory which helps with swollen nasal passages and congestion.  

This is a super simple recipe. If you can boil water you can make this. 

Cold and Flu Ginger Tea 

1/4-1/2 inch fresh ginger shredded or chopped
1/2 fresh lemon juiced
1-2 teaspoons honey or to taste

Fill a small coffee cup with water to measure then pour the water into a small pan. Place the shredded ginger in the water and simmer about 5 minutes. 

Strain the water back into the coffee cup and add lemon juice and honey. 

Please make sure you do not give this tea to children younger then 1 year old due to the honey on it. I am not a doctor and can not claim any health benefits. I am just a mom sharing what has worked for us.


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How We Have Kept Our Chickens Laying So Far This Winter

These are 2 dozen eggs we collected from our 7 hens in about 6 days in January.

I have been told by multiple people that chickens tend to stop laying in the winter or at the very least slow way down. When we had chickens at our previous home this is exactly what happened. We finally broke down and had to start buying eggs that winter. I am not sure if it was their diet or the fact that that winter had tons of snow and very cold temperatures. 

With my current hens I decided to see if there was anything I could do to encourage them to keep laying. From what I read chickens will usually stop laying as the temperatures drop and the days become shorter. I did lots of research and it seemed the only thing I could find was to add a light in their coop to help extend the daylight hours and trick their bodies into producing eggs.

I thought about adding a light, but was very uncomfortable with having unattended electricity in the chicken coop. I decided to try and find a different way to keep them laying. 

One day I stumbled on this video from Becky's Homestead about how she keeps her hens laying all year round. I decided it was worth watching since it was short. Her advice was so simple. She doesn't use a light, but simply changes their diet depending on the time of the year it is. 

The video recommended crimped oats and whole corn, but I decided to use what I had.

I started using her feeding schedule probably late October early November just as the weather was starting to change. Basically her advice was to feed crimped oats in the summer or 6 months of the year and switch to corn in the winter or the other 6 months of the year. She also recommends feeding bread everyday of the year. 

Her reasoning was that the corn had more calories in it and helped give them the energy they need to produce eggs in the winter. 

Not the most glamorous photo.

Of course they can't eat just the small amount of corn or oats in the morning so we also feed them kitchen scrapes and layer pellet from the feed store. I would prefer to buy organic feed, but since we are trying to finish paying off our last student load by the end of this summer we have to cut some corners somewhere for now.

Make sure that if you are feeding scraps you are only feeding fruit, veggies and grains. No meat, dairy or citrus. 

After giving it a try for the last several months I can say that it seems to be working. Out of our 7 hens we typically get 1 egg each during the warm months or about 7 eggs a day, but this winter we have averaged 4-5 a day. That is a win in my books considering most people say their hens stop laying altogether in the winter. 

Here is a sample of my daily routine with my hens...

8:00 a.m. I take out a little over 1 cup half oats half corn. Becky recommended only corn in the winter, but my girls were too picky and would not eat it without some oats mixed in. I then shut the pen to keep them in for the day and change the water. Keeping them in makes sure they eat the corn and gives my poor yard a break from the scratching and pecking. Plus the kids appreciate some playtime without them bothering them. I also check for eggs at this time and replenish their layer pellets. 

1:00 I take out the scrap bucket that I have been collecting since the day before. They get very excited about this. Especially when I have been either canning or dehydrating and have lots of peels for them. Again I check for eggs at this time and make sure the coop in in good shape. I usually have to clean the hay out of the water mid day. Or thaw the ice out of the water bucket. 

4:00 I check for eggs one last time and let the hens out for some free range time. The reason I check for eggs 3 times a day in the winter is because my girls lay all day long and I don't want to chance frozen, cracked eggs. This has happened before and you basically have to trash the egg.

Bedtime I make sure everyone is in and safe for the night. I don't always make it out at this time. It just depends on the day. 

Now, I will admit that we have had a pretty mild winter here in Kansas, but we have not yet had a day without at least 2 eggs even when there was snow or ice on the ground. 

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What To Do When You Buy 40 Pounds of Pears

A couple of weeks ago I was getting ready to place our bi-weekly Bountiful Baskets order when I noticed thay had a great deal on red pears. I almost didn't buy them because I wasn't sure what I would do with all of them, but when you are getting 40 pounds for nearly $.50 a pound you buy then and figure out what to do with them later. 

Do you have any idea how many pears there are in a 40 pound box! A LOT!! Way more then I expected. 

I picked up the pears just before Christmas so I had to just set them in the garage for a couple of weeks before I had time to even consider working with them. I am so thankful for the cool weather. The fruit has slightly ripened, but held up really well in the cold garage.

I ended up giving away as many as I could to family over the holidays to help spread the savings, but you can only give away so many. 

Next I tried to get my kids as well as my daycare kiddos to eat as many as I could. I was shocked to see that the daycare kids were less them impressed with them. I have had several and they are some of the best fruit I have had in a long time. 

So after eating as many as we could and giving away as many as I could talk people into taking I decided last night that I was going to have to figure out some other things to make so my great deal didn't end up sitting out in the garage rotting. 

So I pulled a bunch out and started chopping. 

First off I decided to take the easy route and just pull out my dehydrator and dry as many as I could. I sliced them as thinly as I could and laid them out on trays then transferred them to the dehydrator. 

My plan is to finish this round and do another round later this week as I have time. I was able to get 4 full trays, although I had hoped to fill all of them. The pears were too thick to fit all of them in. 

I set my dehydrator on 135 degrees and let them dry overnight. This is what I found this morning. They were still a bit pliable, but they looked finished. 

I was able to fill several quart jars with the finished product. I was hoping these would last us a while, but once my children discovered them I knew I was going to need to make lots more. My 8 year old told me they were much better then apple chips and tasted like candy! Score 1 for mom!!

Since I was on a roll last night and already had a messy kitchen I decided to go ahead and tackle some homemade orange, cinnamon pear sauce. 

I originally planned to can what I made, but was way too tired once I finished to mess with it. I ended up getting almost 4 quarts. I figured that with all the kids that come through my home I will have no trouble getting it used up before it goes bad. 

The plan is to make some more for the hubby that is sugar free and can it since he requested it. 

To start with I peeled and cored as many as I could get to fit in my vitamix. 

      

And then added a splash of orange juice. 

I filled my vitamix with orange juice and pears several times and pureed enough fruit until I had enough to fill a large pot. 

I then added a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon and about a cup of raw sugar. After adding everything to the pot I let it simmer for about 20 minutes to let the liquid cook out a bit to thicken it up. 

Here are some other ideas I have for using up the rest of the pears...

Pear Cobbler
Canned Pears
Pear Bread
Pear Butter or Jelly


I would love to hear from you if anyone has any other ideas for me to use these up.