Fall!!!!!!

Fall is on it's way! Tuesday a friend od mine called and said they are has a half a bushel of apples they werent going to use , thhey wanted to see if i was interested. So me and they boys went and got the apples and started making stuff! I made a wholw crockpot of apple butter and then canned. Also made abiut 2 1/2 qts. When the farmwr gets more i will make more applesauce and some pie filling. What do you do with the apples ypu get? I would love new recipes to try! What is your favorite part about fall? Is it the cool weather, sweaters, bonfires,hot appple cider, crunchy leaves, changing leaf colors or maybe school starting again (iceberg nothing like "a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils") i really need to watch that movie again! (you've got mail, aka one of my all time favorite movies!) Anyway I would love to know how things are going on your homesteads! Thank you and have a great day! Katie (the farmers wife)

apologies

I wanted to say sorry i havent been on here for so long. Our laptop broke and for some reason our main computer won't let me get on my blog. So I am doing it on my phone. I 8 have missed writing on here so much! To give some updates: little farmer starts kindergarten on wed.! Ahh he is growing to fast! So is little Hoss! Our garden didn't do to well this year. We did get alot of beans, snap peas and swiss chard. The cucumbers didn't do well at all and the squash dies early. We are getting some tomatoes and peppers but not enough to freeze. How are your gardens doing? Did you plant anything new or different? Have you started your fall planting? What ate planting for that? I started our fall seeds late last week and we have sprouts xoming up already! I have planted radishes, two kinds of lettuce ( iceberg and mixed salad greens), and beets. 8 am hoping these come out better then the summer crops. We are still praying that God has a farm for us. But doors have not been open for that yet. So we are patiently waiting( as much as we can) and doing as much as we can here. I hope you are all doing well and continue to follow me! I'm still here! Have a wonderful day.

Farming in the Old Days

Sorry for it being so long since I posted last. things have been so crazy busy around here and our main computer won't let me get onto my blog, so I can only use the laptop which takes forever to warm up ! I am glad to be back !

I wanted to give you a quick update on our little homestead. We have planted two apple trees in the yard, a red delicious and a golden delicious. the potatoes are doing awesome and so are the onions, cauliflower , onions and celery. Our strawberries are actually flowering and have small strawberries on them! This weather is really confusing them. We are getting officially getting compost tea from the worms, once the weather gets warmer and the wind isn't so harsh then we will be harvesting the compost in the bottom of the tub. I will be sure to post about that when I do it.


I have been watching series on internet about farming back in the Edwardian era and Victorian period farms. Historians "go back in time" and go back to these eras to run a farm like they did back in that period of time. It is so cool to see how people lived back then and to learn about what they had to go through. I think it would be neat to do something like this and go back to a farm that use to be running and bring it back to life for a time and live like they did for a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFjdpu4QoLo - Edwardian farm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA1269IgGY0 - Victorian farm

What do you guys think? Would you do something like this? It makes me think if we had to go back to living like this would we be able to do it? I think it seems like a lot of hard work , but watching them do all the farming and house work it make you think of how much they do and how much more I should do! hahaha Hard work never hurt anyone!

I hope you all had a blessed Easter! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!

Spring is here!

Well things have been busy here at our little homestead. Lots of planting going on! I have the raised beds filled with green beans, potatoes,peas ( which are already poking through the ground),cucumbers,cauliflower and lettuces. Everything is starting to show their heads already! Yeah I know I was early getting the seeds in but the weather was calling me! hahaha

An update on our worms... We are proud parents of more worms! hahah they are producing babies! They are doing a great job with eating everything and making nice poopy for our garden hahah. Here are some pics....

We made a run for Happy to give her more of a "condo" then a one bedroom apartment. hahaha She is loving it! I see her in the mornings laying out enjoying the quiet and the sunrise. I admit I love it too! haha

News on the basement it is coming together great! the 2 coats of primer are done and we have some color on three of the walls and hope to have the rest on by the end of this week. Then the second coat and then the walls are done! All that is left is painting the ceiling, the floor and the barn doors we are making! yay!

I am still working on being content with where we are living. Every day I grow impatient on why we are still here when there is somewhere else we could be doing something so much bigger. But for some reason God still wants us here, so here we shall stay until He wants us to move.

Here are some pics of our homestead so far this spring! Hope you all are doing well and sorry this is so short the computer is acting up and I atleast wanted to get something posted since it has been so long!

Have a wonderful week!
~Katie

Lots Happening!!

Well alot is going on here on our little homestead. We finally have dry wall up and it is getting spackled today and 2 more times during the week. We should be able to paint by this weekend!!!! yay!! Here are some pics to show the progress

Other news, I have been wanting raised beds but since the Farmer has been busy with work and things he just hasn't had the chance to build me any. And with this weather I am getting pretty anxious to get them made. Well at his work he found boxes they used for shelving and they can be stacked on each other, they were perfect for raised beds and best of all they were free!Added benefit if we move they can be folded up! So I ran to the hardware store with little farmer and little Hoss , got a gallon of white barn paint, and now they look great! I have two more to put second coats on, but all in all they are ready to be filled. Farmer and I went on a date night while mom-mom and pop-pop watched the boys for us. Thank you! So while we were out we went and picked up 10 bags or topsoil. Then went and picked out the flooring and paint for the basement.

Here are before and after pics. of the raised beds,

We also made a run for Happy to hop around in, so she has more room to move around during the day. She loves it and we used all scrap materials around the house which we enjoyed and so did our wallet hahaha

New in the garden: The seedlings are doing great! I have about 5 roma tomatoes coming up , I have about 10 or more pepper plants , broccoli, cauliflower, lavender, celery, oregano,leeks,cantaloupe, and many more. since this will be our last year with the big garden we are wanting to put alot in to preserve.

Well that is about it for now.Lots to do today. What is going on on your homesteads? What are you growing in your gardens this year?

Have a wonderful day!
~Katie

Bunny hutch makeovers and seeds sprouting!

Well I painted the bunny hutch yesterday with the first coat of paint! It is looking great! I am hoping to get a second coat on it today. :) I will be planting flowers around the bottom when it is warmer of course :)

Other good news some of my seeds have sprouted!! My iceberg are the first to pop through! So exciting! Now if only spring would get here! haha

Sorry so short again but a gorgeous day today and there is laundry to be hung out! :)

What is going on around your homestead!? I would love to hear! Have a Wonderful Day of homesteading! :)
~ Katie

Our bunny

Today was the day we brought home our newest member. "Happy". She is a rex/holland mix rabbit, about 10 weeks old now, and just adorable. She is very friendly and deals with the boys well.
We are all excited about our new addition especially the little farmer and little Hoss! :)

I have been doing some sketches to see where we want the hutch placed and things I want to add to it. I will be painting the outside barn red to match our shed and have white accents as well. I will also be planting flowers around . I will post pics when I have started! :)

Sorry such a short one :) Have a great evening!

~Katie

What a beautiful day!

It was almost in the 60s today! yeah I am loving this winter. Every winter could be like this :) Today we did alot outside to clean up a little. I did hoe up a bit of the garden ( little farmer and Little Hoss helped me with their tractors and diggers). I then got the itch to plant some seeds inside. So I have Roma tomatoes, Iceberg lettuce, spinach and green peppers in my window sill. I know I am early but I couldn't help it! hahah

Little farmer , Little Hoss and I went to the pet store to also get things we would need for our new addition! yes I am very excited. We will be adding a little black and white bunny to our family on Friday, whom little farmer has dubbed as "happy hoppy". We will call him happy for short . I love seeing him get so excited over having a pet he is taking care of "by himself". We are also looking into getting him into a 4-h sometime. Bunnies for now and when we get the land he can work his way up to larger animals.

I am writing this while making snicker doodles ( yes they are my weakness along with oatmeal raisins) While listening to blue grass and enjoying the peace until tomorrow morning. I hope you all have a peaceful evening and enjoyable rest of the week!

God bless,
~ Katie

P.S.
I hope to have a review written up about what I thought of the book Calm my anxious heart by Linda Dillows. So stay tuned! If you have read it I will love to know your thoughts on it!

Kids, chores and rabbits

As a parent do you have chores for your children to do? Do you have chores that your children get money for doing? How do you determine which chores they got payed for and which ones they didn't?

I am wondering this because the little farmer wants a rabbit(s) (deep down so do I ) haha . We are trying to think of chores for him to do for money to save up for the food for this rabbit. (not a definite we are getting it, because there are still some factors we are figuring out.) But I am curious how you choose which chores they get paid for and which chores they do not . The little farmer does have chores, but these are chores he does on a daily basis with out getting payed.

Also, wondering those who have bunnies. What do you like and dislike about them? What is something you would tell someone who is getting a rabbit,that they have to know before doing it?

Thanks for any input!

~ Katie

Learning on being patient and compost worm bin !

On saturday the little farmer and I made a compost worm bin for inside. We had a lot of fun together. Here is how we did it:
What you will need:
2 plastic tubs ( one of the lids from the tub)
Screen (from an old window or screen you have bought) ( or from a father in law who had some he wasn't using :)
Duct tape
newspaper
cardboard
coffee grounds
food scraps
Leaves
2 bricks or rocks

We started by drilling 1/8 inch holes around one of the plastic tubs.

Then we lined the tub with the holes with the screen and secured it to the tub with duct tape.( the screen is there to make sure the worms don't crawl out but also to strain all the compost tea that will come out and go into the bottom tub.)

Next we cut up newspaper into strips and tore cardboard up into pieces then we wet those with a spray bottle. Only get them really moist not dripping wet.

Then we added the coffee grounds, the food scrapes and leaves.Then you mix it all together. I have read to leave it sit for a week. Which is when our worms are suppose to arrive so that will be perfect!

I will keep you updated on the progress of our compost bin :)


For about a month now I have become very bitter about not having a farm. I have prayed about it a lot. But my mind keeps wondering why God has us on hold here. We are so ready and passionate about farming yet he keeps us in a place where we can't do it. I have to remember the verse I use for the journey we are on , that is at the top of my blog. Jeremiah 29:11- "For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord... " Plans to give you hope and a future."
I know he has a plan for us and will use our passion for farming some how . I just need to keep praying for patience and wait for the plan to come through. But this is so hard when you have no patience! hahah
Well that is all for today! I will post again this week , not sure on what yet. Whatever is on my heart :)

Have a wonderful day!

~ Katie

What a couple of weeks!

Our weed started out with Tyler having a horrible cough, runny nose and a high fever. So we rushed him to the ER when he was having issues breathing because of he cough. Here we found out our poor guy had Croup. So we got steriods for him to take, but just didn't seem like he was getting better. So the next day we took him to the ped. She said yes he has croup, but also has a double ear infection and lung congestion. What?! My poor guy! So he was put on meds. again.
Then the next day Kyle was coughing as well, but it didn't sound the same as Tyler's. But to be safe we took him to the doctor's. After the doctor checked him out , She told us he has pneumonia! So she put him on an antibiotic. They are both on neubulizer treatments and are back to acting like themselves.

I have now started with a really bad head cold, but I am glad it is me and not the kids or Tom. :)

On other news I have been organizing my baking supplies. Tom got be a bunch of 5 gallon buckets with lids from work. I have a different colored lid for each flour. I will try to have pictures up soon. So much easier to keep large amounts of flour, ect. in these buckets that way they aren't taking up room in my pantry. :) Where do you store your flour or baking products?

Garden news:
I have recieved all of my seeds. We are just waiting on our blueberry bushes to arrive. I let Kyle look at the catolog with me and saw these bushes he wanted to try. So we ordered two up with my mom. We are excited to see how they do this summer.

Have you ordered any unique plants or seeds you are going to try this spring? I hope you all have a wonderful week!

~ Katie

Courageous

What words come to your mind when you hear this word? Maybe

• Strong
• Never backs down
• Never fearing
• Jesus

What got me thinking about this word? The movie Courageous. What a powerful, thought provoking and inspiring movie. I highly recommended to anyone wo hasn't seen this before to go and rent it or borrow from friends or family. Especially if ou have children. The movie is based more for men( fathers/mentors), but as a wife . mother it impacted me as well.
Another thing that the movie really got me thinking about was how I take for granted the time I have with my children. Yes somedays I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open and others I would love to be on a deserted island with food, books and dvd player. (All by myself) And then there are the days I just need that padded room. hahah But I should really take every moment even during those time when Kyle comes running up to me and says, "Mommy come play trains with me ", (Even if this is the fiftieth time playing it that day) :) I should run in the room and play it with him because no one knows how much time you have with your children or with anyone else and I want to be able to say. I was the best mother I could have been and have no thoughts in my head of," I should have done blank more with them".
   I just wanted to encourage you to see the movie and I hope it makes an impact on your lives like it did ours :)

    On other news, It has been a very stressful week for us. Tom was working alot of hours at work this week ( such a blessing and love him so much for doing it for our family!). Then on top of all that our Clothing washer died. UGH! Again! UGH! So we had to go and look at washers , which we really didn't feel like doing. There are so many new models out there! The simple living family we are only wanted a regular washer without all the fancy do dats on it. That is like finding a needle in a haystack! hahah But finally after traveling the whole way to harrisburg we found it!!! And it was on clearance!!! And here she be....

So excited!

     Other news, tomorrow is suppose to be in the mid 50's yay!! Come on Spring!! So the boys and I will be outside. I am going to clean up the outside a little and then doing a diagram of the this years garden at our house and maybe do one of the big garden. I know it is only the end of January and spring is a good bit away , but maybe this year spring will come early! :) A girl can dream! haha

So how was your weekend? What did you do? Have you gotten cabin fever already like me?! :) I would also love to know from those who have seen the movie Courageous, what did you think of the movie? How has it impacted you?  Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday!

~ Katie








                
                    

Motivation

Today I was counting change from our "Farm jar". This is a jar we put our spare change or change we find. It is where the money for are farm is being saved. :) It is nice to see the coins from somebody's jeans pockets while doing wash ( the hubby's) and put it straight into the jar.

Doing this with the jar is so much fun for me! Watching the coins slowly build up in the jar, it makes me think of how to us getting a farm is going slow ( at least to me it does!), but we will soon be blessed to have one!

Kyle gets a quarter or other small change when he helps me out around the house or outside. He had 3 jars to put the money into. One is for Spending, one is for Savings, and the last is for Giving.  He has told us the Spending jar money is for a Thomas train he wants and a donut ( hahah kid cracks me up, but hey it's his money) . The money in the savings jar, he has said that is for his chickens and  the sheep he wants to buy when we get our farm or as he would put it, " When we get to build our barn!" haha.

I love when he asks me if we can sit and talk about what our farm is will be like and the animals we will have on it. If this isn't enough motivation for us , I don't know what is! And to see just the spark in his eye when we talk about it. God has blessed us with such beautiful children and with excited hearts about everything. It motivates me to be more excited about things, even the little stuff! :) My children and husband are such a motivation to me, to do things to make our lives better and more fun!

Now more then ever we want to give this kind of farm life to our boys , who are already passionate about our life on a farm/homestead!
God has a plan and we are on the journey where He wants us! We are all excited to see where it leads us all! 

How are you motivated to have a simple life, homestead, etc.?
I would love to here what motivates you and what you are motivated to do.

Have a Wonderful Day!

~ Katie

update on basement! :)

Saturday we had a bunch of my husband's friends come over and work on the basement. They did an amazing job! They got the wiring done some of the lights up and framed and insulated two walls! YAY! It is starting to look like a finished basement! Here are some pictures:

oh boy!

Tomorrow is a big day around here! My husband has off and has asked some of his friends to come over to work on the basement! Yay! We are hoping that they will get alot done and we can start hanging drywall soon! Yay! I will post pictures after they are done to keep you updated!

I went to Sharp Shopper with my dad and my boys. What a fun time! :) If you aren't from this area, Sharp Shopper is a discounted grocery store. I could spend all of our bank account stocking up on things( don't think the Hubby would approve! LOL)


Tyler our youngest has his 18month old appt. today at the pediatricians. Where has the time gone!? Our oldest starts kindergarten next year! Can't believe it! It does go to fast!

Today I am working on ways to bring in extra income to help the family out and to use to save for the boys college funds. 

What ideas do you have for bringing in some extra cash? What do you do? I would love to know! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend if I don't blog before then! :)

God Bless!


~Katie

Organzing

I am wanting to get more organized as one of my goals. So I am thinking of things to do to become that. I found some cute ideas and thought I would share. :)

Love this idea for the kitchen. Can't wait to go yard saling and hopefully find jars like this for cheap! :)

http://www.menus4moms.com/notesfromthekitchen/organization-ideas/pretty-storage-jars-with-chalkboard-paint/

For our stand up freezer downstairs! Love what Homestead Revival posted here http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2010/07/upright-freezer-organization.html

Does anyone have any other ideas for organization in the any room!? I would love to hear about them or see them! :)


Have a Wonderful day!

~Katie

2012

Wow really! Is it already here! Craziness! I guess with kids the years go by faster like they say. Well I am pretty happy with last year. We became DEBT FREE!!! yay!!  I skimped out on alot of my goals so this year I am determined to do my whole list! I have a personal/family and a homesteading/simple life list.

I will give you my homesteading/ simple life list. 

Here we go.....

-Keep making laundry soap! ( i didn't do this one alot last year)
-start a new compost pile/ bin.
- get 2 or 3 blueberry bushes
-can and freeze as much as I can from the garden and trips to roots's . Didn't get much canned or frozen.
-Watch less tv. ( whole family, but also want to lower our electric bill)
-blog daily or at least once a week.
-buy 1/4 or 1/2 beef cow
-learn to make a rag rug/braided rugs
-start sewing and making things ( I have a sewing machine just screaming my name)
-Try raw cows milk and make things from it such as butter, etc.
- find more energy efficient ways to do things

I am sure will add more. I am keeping it simple since I have another list of goals.


Personal goals/ family

- Stay better organized and find an organizational system that works best for us.
- Finish at least 4 books this year
-devotionals daily ( struggled with this last year since I have early rising children around 6am and I am exhausted by 8pm but no excuses it will get done!)
- finish the basement , maybe even the kitchen ( we are working on finishing our basement into more living space)
-Remember when shopping is it a need or a want
- Go on a date night at least once every 3 months.
-Keep using coupons( love that word) haha
-Start saving for Kyle's schooling and for Tyler's
- Save 3-6 months living expenses
- be as frugal as possible.

So there you have it . My list of goals this year. I would love to hear any of your goals! :) Hope you all had a wonderful christmas and a great start to the new year!

~ Katie