The Country Homemaker Hop #60

It's been a few weeks since I last hosted this hop (my apologies) and I am happy to be getting back on track again.  It's been hectic over here lately.  I have been struggling to keep up.

Garden soil tests indicated that we had pH issues.  I've had to treat with elemental sulphur twice now to bring it down.  As a result, my transplants are just now making their way into the ground.  Because I knew my soil needed work, I planted my dinner plate dahlia tubers (about 50 of them) into 1/2 gallon pots about 6 weeks ago.  This week I have been busy transferring them into my raised garden beds.  They're looking good so far.

Excitement abounds since our two broody little salmon faverolle hens hatched a total of 15 happy, healthy babies.  Most of whom look just like Daddy, our gorgeous Plymouth Barred Rock rooster.  These are the first babies born on our new little farm.  They've been a blessing and a inspiration.  Meanwhile the front yard fence is slowly coming together so I can allow all of my animals to free range on about an acre of our property when I am outside with them.  Though we live in the foothills, neighborhood dogs have been our biggest challenge so far, not the wildlife.  I am sure that will change after we get the fence up and we will focus on them next.

My hubby finished laying the hardwood floor in the kitchen and dining room.  Last week his BFF Roy came for a visit and the two of them completed so many tasks around here.  They cleaned up much of our overgrown yard, moved some of my heaviest dining room furniture into the house, and organized the garage/workshop so Jerry can fix and build things without tripping over boxes.  They also cleaned the little pool that came with this house and have been slowly working on getting it filled.

This is my Addy

I am happy to announce that I will finally be bringing home my first two baby dairy goats this weekend.  I am overjoyed.  I admit, I have been in prayer over this since the weekend.  These babies are very young and will need to be bottle fed for a while.  I am a little nervous.  I sure don't want to do anything that injures these precious little ones.  I hope that this is the beginning of my eventual milk supply.

  I've been enjoying so many little projects indoors too.  I've made cheese and butter from fresh cream and milk given to me by a really kind neighbor.  I have made a few pies and cookies too.  It's been so much fun baking with the old stove.

Well, that's what we've been working on lately, what have YOU been doing?

The Country Homemaker Hop #58

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ”
― C.S. Lewis

What have YOU been working on this week around your homestead???  

Please join us Wednesdays to share your pictures, recipes, household wisdom, garden and farm, barn and butcher, homemaking tips, crafts, homemaking ideas and stories with the country homemaking community. It's a new year full of exciting new opportunities. Life is what we make it. Let's dig in and discover just what's been going on- on the Country Homestead this week? 

Have a great week.

Heidi

The Country Homemaker Hop #52

Welcome Friends!

It's hard to believe, but this is the 52nd week for The Country Homemaker blog hop.  I have really enjoyed the last year and appreciate everyone that has participated by either linking up and sharing their valuable skills and homemaking adventures or simply sharing their thoughts.  

Thank you for sharing so many wonderful recipes, helpful farm and garden advice, homemaking ideas, creativity and wisdom.  

I hope that 2013 brings us many more adventures to write and read about.  Please keep em' coming!  Thank you in advance for your time and contributions toward growing our little online homemaking community.   Together we can move mountains and educate eachother about everything homemaking!

Please join me next week for a special post.  We will highlight the TOP TEN posts of the year.

Until then, may your home be full of love and happiness, and may you have a song in your heart!

Now let's get HOPPING!!!

Heidi

The Country Homemaker Hop #51

Happy Homemaking!

I hope you had a happy and productive week on the homefront.  I sure did.  Things are starting to come together around here and that is very exciting.

For starters, my hubby Jerry made great progress on his first tough job for our little fixer-upper.  He removed old drafty glass sliding doors and a large window.  The job turned out to be a bit bigger than we expected as there was pretty significant termite damage, but he has made repairs and everything is all walled in.  Ready for drywall and cosmetics inside the house.


I was really impressed by how much changing out that old door for newer better insulated ones increased the temperature inside.

Today, he is back at work replacing more old single pane giant windows upstairs.

That man amazes me.

 I am not gifted with his strength or construction skills, but I can hold my own in a pile of dirt so I spent a few sunny afternoons this week tilling and prepping a few flower/vegetable garden beds right in front of the house...

Silly maybe, but there's incredible soil here and I just can't waste it.
As I type this post, he is leveling a place for me to have a small garden this season in the backyard.

This morning, he built me two 16' long raised bed boxes. Woohoo!


Now we need to work on a temporary greenhouse... it seems that we're going to put those old single pane windows and doors to good use afterall.

Well, that's what we've been up to on our little homestead this week.

Please share your progress too by linking up your post(s) below.

May this next week bring you joy and happiness and find you busy in projects too.

The Country Homemaker Hop #49

Howdy Homemakers

We're Back Online!!!

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to share The Country Homemaker Hop with you.  It was early December the last time we linked up and shared our homemaking adventures.  I hope to never stray again.  

I am happy to report that we are all settled into our new homestead.  I am enjoying all the new experiences and I will be sharing them here from now on, every Wednesday on this... The Country Homemaker Hop.

Old friends and new friends I invite you all to join me every week to link up and share the stories and ideas that are important to you.  

Everything homemaking is welcome.  So whatever your passion: be it crafting, cooking, baking, cleaning, healthy eating, gardening, livestock tending, parenting, and everything in between... please share it here.  No post is too small or insignificant, your post may just be the one that a new blogfriend on the other side of the continent or on the other side of the planet needs.  So, please DO share.

I want to share an old recipe from a great friend one more time.  The recipe belongs to Michelle of the blog Michelle's Little Piece of Heaven and it's her white bread recipe.  My cookbooks are still packed and I have been dying to take advantage of my Wedgewood stove's pilot lights.  They keep the oven and broiler nice and warm, perfect to rise bread in. Michelle reminded that this post is still online HERE.  It's been a while since I made her recipe since my Convection oven did not like it, but the old Wedgewood LOVES it.  

Now, I just need to find a new whole wheat and honey bread recipe and things will be perfect here on the homestead... If you have a good one, please share it. Thanks!

Let's get hopping!

The Country Homemaker Hop #48

I’ve been keeping busy here at the new place.   Even camped out in the “tin teepee” we have found many new adventures to keep us busy as we wait for both escrows to close in a few more weeks. 

Here are a few highlights from this week…

Our new home is located on an old country road in the mountains.  One of our next door neighbors is an old 1500 acre black angus cattle ranch.  A few properties beyond that one lies an abandoned pomegranate orchard which is home to a large group of wild American turkeys.  We snapped this shot of them as we drove by on Sunday.  We did a bit of research and found that there are two short seasons here to hunt them with permits.  Yippee!  I bet they'll taste mighty sweet eating those pomegranate seeds. 

We are buying the home “as is” which means that we are responsible for the repairs necessary to make the home pass through the appraisal process.  

One mystery has been the water heater…  

There is an old slab and hoses for a water heater outside, but no tank.  We all assumed there was no water heater until after the well was repaired and we could feel hot water at most of the faucets.  Then the hunt was on to find it…  It was not under the house, in the wall, or in the attic as expected.  It was hidden ingeniously under the staircase, almost too well since not even two plumbers found it.  My investigator hubby wouldn’t give up and he went panel by panel til he got it.  Whew! 

Jerry has been working very hard to repair the MANY broken things in this house ie: several plumbing leaks, hoses and pea traps, and the odd toilet tank seal/bolts. 

The appliances were all stolen so we had to replace them for escrow too. 

We got really lucky and found an antique Wedgewood gas cookstove for less than the price of the cheapest brand new stove at the store.  Jerry installed it and it works great.  It’s so pretty and reminds me of Grandma’s house… 

He is replacing the holey drywall and broken tile as he goes with inexpensive white beadboard, which I love.  can you see the new beadboard behind the stove??? Isn't is great?

To blow off some steam he’s been working a little on the new chicken coop for our gals when he gets a chance.  They can’t move in over here until they’re safe.  This place is full of mountain lions, bears, coyotes, grey fox, and smaller predators like raccoons and skunks and timber rattlers so we have a big job ahead of us keeping everyone safe.

Here are the original house steps made from river rock about 50 years ago.  I pressure washed them and love em. 

I wrapped up all the pipes to the well tanks to protect them from freezing…I still need to wrap the pump (the most important part) atleast until Jerry gets the time to build a wellhouse over them both.

I stacked the firewood we brought up from the old house this weekend…

Today, we went down to the big city of Visalia to a Habitat 4 Humanity Restore to buy some old doors and windows for the new chicken coop and we found this awesome old claw foot tub too.  With a little TLC it'll be as good as new...

We would not be able to dream such BIG dreams were it not for our heavenly father looking over our shoulder guiding our way.  Since we found this new home he has cleared our path and removed so many obstacles.  It has been an incredible experience and this is just the beginning of the journey.  

Thank you for taking the time to check in on us and share what you've been up to lately.  Have a GREAT week! Let's get HOPPING!!!

Heidi

The Country Homemaker Hop #47

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a little history on the American Thanksgiving Holiday for our friends outside the United States.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November.  It has been an official holiday since 1863, when (during our Civil War) President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens". 

The event that many Americans consider the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the pilgrims and their Native American neighbors in 1621. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, and was attended by 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. 

May this Thanksgiving holiday find you well fed, relaxing, and able to enjoy your time surrounded by friends and loved ones.  We get too few special moments, I pray that you get to experience a few this week. Please don't forget to say a little prayer for all our friends and neighbors and soldiers separated from their loved ones on this Thanksgiving holiday too.  Happy Turkey Day!!!  Let's get hopping!!!  Link up below...

The Country Homemaker Hop

Hello Friends

This week I have been busy packing my house and preparing for inspections... Yesterday I even spent a few hours digging up the lids for the septic tank so it could be pumped and certified.  What a thankless job that was.  Today I packed up all of the cabinets in the bathrooms so the termite inspector can get a good look under the sinks to be sure there are no leaks or termites.  

Meanwhile the hubby is camped out at the new place to prevent further vandalism.  So far, the refrigerator, range/oven, microwave and two well bladder tanks and a pump have mysteriously walked away...  This weekend, we hope to have the well working again.  Once the water is on Michelle and I are heading up to clean up the house.  

I plan to continue packing up 4-5 boxes each day.  I am working one room at a time, deep cleaning before the appraisal.  The bathroom tile and grout are trying my patience since the water softener went out.  We have a brand new one now, but the scale has built up for a few weeks so I am doing lots of scrubbing...

I am sad to say that I have not made a whole meal from scratch in a few weeks.  My kitchen is almost completely packed up now.  All of my old china and knick-knacks are packed up too.  Whew.  I am not even halfway done and I am already feeling a bit tired.  I am feeling a bit restless too since we are playing hurry up and wait, waiting on both escrows to close before we can really move anything.  The boxes are piling up.  Every day it becomes more clear to me that someone is watching over us, guiding our path as every obstacle put in our path miraculously falls to the wayside.  

I hope your last week was a good one and I pray this next week and the coming Thanksgiving holiday bring you warmth, family and friendship enough to last all year long.  Have a blessed week!

Now it's YOUR turn to share what' you've been up to around the homestead recently.

The Country Homemaker Hop #45

Happy Wednesday!

Since the weekend, I have been busy packing boxes and lining up licensed contractors to investigate the new place.  My back aches, my neck aches, but somehow I keep moving forward.  I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, and I look forward to the day that I can sit back and relax a bit.

We  made our first run to a local thrift store to donate lots of good duplicate housewares that I have managed to collect over years of yard sales.  I confess, I am a hoarder, of good things...  They're finding new homes.  I can collect common items again at yard sales in my new community and that'll be a great way to meet my neighbors.  It just doesn't make sense to me to spend time and money packing things that I can replace for a buck or less when I get there.

On the homefront, our home here sold in about 8 hours and we are hustling to get things tidy for the new owners.  Jerry is touching up exterior paint which was new a year ago.  I am working to clean and seal tile grout this week, and I am losing the battle in the shower so far.  I could sure use your help...

If you have a solution to remove water scale from glass shower doors, please share.  We have very hard water and through this experience we found that our trusty old friend, the water softener, has died after 18 years of use.  Jerry's installing a new one today, but the residue has really built up in just a few weeks.  Please share your successful solutions by commenting below.

The animals are all healthy, the plants are slowly pulling down their chlorophyll into the roots before they hibernate for winter, and I am keeping up with falling leaves, sort of.

What has been going on around your homestead this week???  Please do share.  Thanks.  Have a great week ahead.

The Country Homemaker Hop #44

Happy Wednesday!

I have been busy trying to finish up a few end of season chores.  I finally extracted the honey from a few left over hive boxes.  Yippee!  Fresh honey!  

I got a few gallons to feed back to my bees this winter, and I jarred up a few cute little wedges of honeycomb in pint jars for gifts.

The leaves on my Autumn Blaze maple tree are turning beautiful colors and littering my lawn.  I love the changing colors of Autumn.  

We've had a BUSY ten days or so.  My beautiful baby sister got married, I had another birthday, my kids came up for a visit, and Jerry and I have been driving up and down the western Sierra-Nevada mountains looking for an affordable little patch of homestead to move our little farm into.  Our efforts seem to be paying off.  We just found out tonight that the owners of the fixer-upper we've been in negotiations to buy have accepted our offer.  Woohoo!!!  So, it looks like there are going to be some BIG changes for us very soon.  Whew, I feel like I need a nap.  The animals are all tucked in to bed and we are heading that way too.  May you have have a blessed week.  It's YOUR turn to share...

The Country Homemaker Hop

Welcome Friends

Autumn has arrived at our little mountain.  This week the last tomato plants succumbed to freezing temperatures and there are finally beautiful red maple leaves littering my yard.

In the hen house, the girls are surprisingly still laying pretty well.  I am noticing only a slight drop in egg production so far.  One day I might find 13 eggs and the next day I may see only 9 or 10.  Either way, the ladies are feeding me and my husband very well and we are so grateful.  

The honey bees are not fairing as good as I'd hoped they would.  I winterized the hives and removed some boxes to try to compact space for warmth, but the last few days cold overnight temps are proving too much.  Each morning I find a dozen or so dead guard bees on the landing decks.  

We are in negotiations on the homestead of our dreams right now.  The home is a fixer upper, but it's on a hearty glacial fed river and the property line ends in the middle of the river giving water/irrigation rights to water a small family farm and pasture.  It is at a lower elevation than our current home so no freezing.  I should be able to grow crops all year long without too much extra work.  Everything has been falling into place so far, but there are three owners, siblings and they do not seem to be able to agree on the sales price/inspections.  We are doing a little nail biting right now...

Please keep my son Jon in your prayers.  He was laid off this week.  He and his wife just celebrated their first wedding anniversary last month.  I am hopeful that he finds a job soon.

Well, that's what's been happening on my little mountain.  It's your turn to share what you have been up to.  I hope you have a wonderful week and I thank you for stopping by.

Heidi

We Go Solar

Today we completed the preparation (on paper) for our conversion to solar energy.  We have signed a contract called a Power Purchase Agreement or (PPA) with a company that will install their solar panels, inverter, and meter and most important to my husband- they will be responsible for the maintenance of the equipment for the entirety of the contract.  

In a PPA contract the consumer locks in the rate for the price they are going to spend for each kilowatt of power they use for the duration of the contract.  Our price is guaranteed not to go up during the life of our contract.  Locally, our power company rates have been climbing at a minimum of more than 6% annually for a decade.  So, if rates continue to climb as they have, our flat rate for the 97% of our average monthly energy use that will be provided by the solar panels will start saving us money very soon.

Our current average monthly electricity bill is $90 plus our $10 smart meter opt out fee for a total of $100.  Once our panels are hooked up and functioning, our new monthly bill for the same average KWh will be $104.86 flat rate for the 97% solar and the 3% local power, that is until the local power company institutes the next raise... at least they will only be raising my fees for 3% of my power from now on...  You can see over time how that will ultimately save us thousands of dollars in a matter of years.  

The company we chose was the first one I've spoken to that was willing to double the amount of panels/power generation without a huge up front expense to us.  In fact, they have a special going on right now that allowed us to start with zero down.  So, they will be installing the panels within the next few weeks and as soon as the power company removes their meter and hooks up the solar meter to the grid, we will be almost completely off of coal energy.  

Our contract guarantees us 97% of our peak energy use from solar, that's why we demanded the extra panels.  So, as our power company rates continue to rise at twice the rate of inflation, the most they will affect our budget is on a mere 3% of our energy use...  Pretty nifty I think.

The Country Homemaker Hop- Week 16

The Country Homemaker Hop

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ”
― C.S. Lewis

We have been busy around here.  Our baby chicks are growing like weeds and today they're three weeks old.   It seem like they double in size every day or two. 

 I have 15 babies for me and two babies for my BFF Michelle.    This little girl is a black austrolorp.   This week I have found a few deals at yard sales that I am excited about.  

  This is a vintage American cactus cookie jar that I got for $2.  Yippee!  I love it.

 I found this lovely old pinecone decorated dish for 25 cents at another sale

 and this was the best deal this week.  My hubby got me this Champion juicer for just $5.  It's twice as big and powerful as my old one.  

 I got this cute little sealed jar for a dollar at yet another sale

 I finally joined a food co-op, Azure Standard.  They deliver to a local drop point so there's no shipping fee.  I wish I had known about co-ops sooner.  The prices are so good and the quality is the best.  Organic, non-GMO, whole grains in bulk.  My head is still whirling.  

I am working on another batch of homemade apple cider vinegar.  Kathy's recipe works like a charm for me, every time.  

 I am starting a few trays of summer veggie seeds each week now, indoors.  I set them out in the greenhouse once they have their first set of true leaves.

Michelle spotted some giant strawberry plants at Old Towne Nursery.  I ran in and found the last few plants.  Thank you Michelle!  I LOVE strawberries.  I still have to cover their mounded bed in 4mil black plastic before I plant them into it, sometimes this week.  

I am working on a BIG project inspired by Farmgirl Deb of Deborah Jean's Dandelion House.  I am re-purposing an old television cabinet.  I hope to turn it into a larder/pantry as she did with hers in the post Up-Cycled Farm Pantry Reveal.  I'll share soon.

What have YOU been busy doing around your homestead this week???