Our Sunday Morning Toast

Every Sunday morning we devour this toast.  I made it up in my kitchen when my husband requested French toast for breakfast a few months ago and it has been a hit in my house every since.  Its kind of too good not to share.

Ingredients:

  12 slices of Texas Toast
  half pint of heavy whipping cream
  1 egg
  2 Tsp of ground cinnamon
  1 Tsp of vanilla
  3 Tsp of local (if possible), organic honey
  Powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 250*

White the oven is heating up beat together the cream, egg, cinnamon, vanilla, and honey.  Mix well especially while scraping the bottom of your dish so the honey mixes will.

Then dip your toast on each side into the batter and put on a hot griddle.  Let each side brown.  You may have to add more cinnamon to a few pieces depending on your taste as the mixture gets used up.

Then place on a baking sheet and keep in the oven until your finished all of the toast.  I even put the last few in the oven while I get plates ready because I like to make the crust a little crispy.

 Sprinkle with a bit of powdered sugar if you want and enjoy! We top ours with warm organic maple syrup or more honey depending on our mood. 

Until next time,
Cheers

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Im terrible about letting our bananas turn so Im always on the lookout for new recipes I can use them up in.  While browsing pinterest I can across this recipe and had to try it!  (Original can be found here.)  We absolutely loved it and I had to share this goodness. 

Ingredients: 

3 large, very ripe bananas

2/3 cup granulated sugar (reduce to 1/2 cup if you want less sugar)

1 large egg

1/3 cup applesauce

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup  all-purpose flour

1/2 cup  unsweetened cocoa powder (we split this and used dark chocolate cocoa powder and regular)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup  semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping

Preheat oven to 375* and gather your ingredients.

 

Mash your bananas up with a fork.  Try not to leave any big chunks.

 

Add your sugar.

 

Your egg.

 

And applesauce.  Then mix well.

 

Then add flour slowly mixing as you go.

 

And then your cocoa powder. 

 

And then your salt, baking powder & baking soda.  Mix well.

 

And last but not least your chocolate chips.

 

And fold those in.

 

Fill your muffin tins up to the top (will make 12) and bake at 375 for 18 minutes.

While it bakes lick your bowl.  Don't be shy with it.

 

And then top with chocolate chips and devour. 

 

You're welcome.

Rasing a flock & kids

We got our first flock of chicks in a couple of weeks ago now and we have fallen in love with our girls!  Its been such a great experience watching them grow so quickly right before our eyes.  It has also been such an excellent learning experience for my kiddos and it gives them a sense of responsibility.  And I have found it also helps from them wanting to constantly hold them.  While I do let the kids hold the chicks its normally during the chick brooder cleaning time and sometimes at the end of the day while we are winding down. You don't want to handle the chicks too much because they could possibly die and you don't want to hold the rooster at all.  Since we don't know which chick is the rooster just yet we keep this at a minimum.  If you hold the rooster often and he gets use to you then he will try to be more dominant and mean.

 

 They have their specific jobs which include:

 

1. Being on chicken watch.  This includes checking in on them through out today to make sure their water is clean & that they have fresh feed.  Chicks go through a lot of food and water.  That is when they aren't pooping in it so keeping watch on this is a full time job.  You always want to keep it fresh so you dont get a case of coccidia in your flock.  My 6 year old is also in charge of filling their feed up.

 

2. Watching for pasty butt.  This isn't a big deal now as it was when we first got them, but pasty butt can actually kill your chicks if not cared for.  Pasty butt is when their poop is dried onto their vent and feathers and it will need to be removed.  To remove you can use a warm wash cloth to gently wipe off, but I found running their tush under warm water in the sink, dry as much as you can with a towel, and then apply petroleum jelly to their vent area helped the best. Although some sites will say to apply olive oil I would avoid this because it could sour.

Pasty butt is usually caused from the stress of shipping or even from being too hot.  And of course, little boys are usually pretty gross so my son loves yelling about pasty butt when he spies a chick with that going on down there.

 

3. When Im cleaning out the brooder (we do this about every 3 days), then their job is to help make sure they do not jump out of the box we keep them in during this time.  They love this job and find it loads of fun!

 

4.  Giving them treats.  Chickens love worms and my kids love dirt.  When we go outside to garden they have a jar they keep with them and they dig up worms to give the chickens as treats.  This also serves as a good laugh because as soon as the chicks get a hold of a few worms chaos breaks out in the brooder.  Prepare for a good laugh.

 

5.    Giving them love!  The best part of raising chickens, apart from the eggs, is giving them lots of love!

 

We currently have 27 chicks and we purchased them from My Pet Chicken.  We loved dealing with this company!  Their customer service is wonderful and in the event that any of your chicks die on arrival or within the first 48 hours they will refund you.  We actually lost 3.  1 of our black australorps were dead on arrival and then we lost a silkie and rhode island red at home. 

 

We ordered golden comets, buff orphingons, rhode island reds, barred rocks, an olive egger, easter eggers, black australorps, white leghorns, silkies, and we got their surprise hatch eggs which included a blue polish, a phoenix, and one that is still unidentified.  When ordering we picked our specific breeds and then added the surprise hatch special and brown egg layer special.  Which is where its their pick on what you get.  We love surprises and it has been a lot of fun trying to guess what chicks are what.  I also knew I wanted a pretty egg basked every morning so we chose chickens that would lay a variety of colors such as different shades of brown, white, green, and shades of blue.  Im hoping to add one more chick to our flock if I can find a maran which will lay a dark chocolate colored brown egg.

 

In an effort to live a more self sustainable lifestyle we have also been experimenting with making our own organic chicken feed so I will be sharing that recipe soon as well as where you can buy the ingredients in bulk.

 

I will be blogging about our coop, the design we chose, and how we are transferring them outdoors soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Adventures

I have been heavily neglecting this little corner of the internet.  I set out with good intentions, but life got a hold of me and it slowly drifted down further and further on my to do list.  So I'm back now, hoping to summon up this little blog and I'm going to try to commit to it a little more.

After thinking, my goal for this space will not only be to share our life so our family that lives far away can see our everyday, but to create a space to share what we are learning on this homestead adventure.  Homesteading is a life a lot of people dream about...and a lot of people do, but the blogs I find are all from well established homesteaders and there's not many out there that show what its like from the ground up.  I'm hoping to change that and I hope to make this a place for people to come and learn along side us because this is all so new to us.  I hope to share our journey openly and show the ups and downs of this lifestyle.  And while ours isn't exactly established just yet, I hope to encourage those who are wanting to do this and show you first hand that that it takes a lot of patience, love and a will.   My goal is to document the good and the bad so folks out there can see its not always rainbows and unicorn poop out here.  Its hard. But its also so rewarding.

I know theres a lot of folks out there that think homesteading is a far fetched dream, but I want to show you that you can do it.  We were just 2 normal folks living in a subdivision, going to work everyday, getting lost in that 9-5 lifestyle, but we had this dream.  And one day we decided to make it a reality.  And we took a chance, drained our savings account and now we are here.  In our dream cabin in the woods, 20+ acres of land, 27 chicks chirping away in a brooder in my office and plans to pick up our first dairy goats this weekend.  It can happen with a little determination & patience.  We are the kind of folks that dig right into a situation.  Which can be good when you are setting dreams, but then may downfall later on (like when picking out chicks...I couldn't just pick 10. I had to have 27.  Go big or go home is how we roll around here.)  We are go getters and we make shit happen.  You only live once yall.

I want to share our gardening adventures, how we are raising chickens & goats, pigs, and later on bees.  I hope to share how we homeschool and how we use this lifestyle to teach our children.  As well as natural remedies & recipes.

So I hope you follow along this crazy journey of ours and I promise to update often.

Until next time.
Cheers.

 

DIY: Homemade Laundry Detergent & Fabric Softener

I love making detergent.
I love making fabric softener.
And most of all...
I love saving money.

These are my favorite recipes and I hope you enjoy them too!

Lets talk detergent first:



You will need- Borax, Super Washing Sodas (I order HERE), Purex Crystals (this is optional), Oxiclean (we use the off brand from the dollar store to save more money), and a bar of castile soap.  We use THIS.

I add one cup of all of the ingredients and I grate up 1 bar of soap.  It just takes a little elbow grease to get it done.  You can also use a food processor or you can put the bar of soap on a glass plate and microwave it.  You must watch it at all times!  It will get big and puffy (this is desired).  Let it cool and then you can crumble it into the mixture.  However, grating will give you a more desirable texture and I think it mixes better.

You will use 2 TBL for a small load and 1/4 cup for a large load.

Fabric Softener:

You will need 6 cups of HOT water, 3 cups of white distilled vinegar, and 2 cups of your favorite conditioner.  I buy suave to save money!  And think about how many scents there are out there!  Have fun with this! 

Mix the vinegar and conditioner into the hot water with a wire whisk until there are no more clumps.  Use 1/4 cup for each load. 

Now go save money! :)

Comfort Food - Macaroni & Cheese Pie

 

As the fall air is setting in and we are preparing for a super cold night, Im reminded of my all time favorite comfort food: mac & cheese pie. 

How I wish I had a bowl full right in front of me, but since I don't, Ill just blog about it instead.

Its full of butter & cheese, and cheese, and did I mention cheese?

Which is the south butter & cheese are staples.  And this counts as a vegetable.

Seriously.

 

Ingredients:

16 oz box of elbow noodles

1 stick of butter (divided)

1 pound block of sharp cheddar cheese

16 oz block of mild cheddar cheese

1 egg, beaten

12 oz can of evaporated milk

1 TBL of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

 

Cook noodles until done.  Drain and mix with 3 Tbl of butter.  Add milk, salt, pepper & beaten egg.  Mix in 1 lb of sharp cheddar cheese.  Pour into large buttered casserole dish.  Top with the mild cheese and dot the top with butter.  Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until lightly browned.  This serves almost 14 people so you can save some for leftovers or cut it in half and freeze what you don't eat for another day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

School Lately..

 

I feel like the last 2 weeks have flown by!  We have been so busy with life in general so I didn't get to document everything we did during school, but heres a small review.

 

We have been really working on a set chore list for Marleigh.  She dosent get an allowance, but if she keeps up her hard work (with no complaining) and has a good heart by helping others she will get random rewards.  To make sure her behavior stays in check and to make sure she keeps up with her duties we made a behavior chart for our fridge that looks like this:

 

Its pretty basic.  Their names are glued to clothes pins.  If they get 1 warning they get moved to yellow, 2nd time to orange, and once they get to red they can choose a consequence our of the consequence jar which has different chores, a go to bed early card, or a "its your lucky day...no consequence this time" card.  If its later in the day (after dinner) then they go right to bed if it lands on red.  It works WONDERS and my 3 year old even understands it.  He got his first taste of early bed time last night when he made his way down to red and he has been pretty good today.

 

And we use THIS Melissa & Doug responsibility chart.  I usually change out some of the chores every other week.

 

 

We have been LOVING the fall weather here in the mountains and have really enjoyed daily nature walks.

 

During science we explored different trees and did bark rubbings.  It was really fun exploring the textures.

During this time we also gathered leaves in our nature basket.  When they got home they had to sort the leaves in different ways.  For example, first they had to separate smallest to largest, by color, by tree type, etc...Then they picked their favorites & we ironed them between wax paper to preserve them and glued them in our science book.

 



        

 

We came across 2 praying mantis' and had a fun doing a nature study on them.  It was really fun seeing Marleigh add them to her nature journal.

 

 

 

We totally hit the jack pot and found books for 12 cents at the thrift shop.  We purchased as many as we could and spent one afternoon in our fort reading away.

 

 

My boy turned 3 on September 27! I really couldn't believe it!  One cool thing about homeschool is on really special days, like birthdays, we take the whole day off!  We don't do birthday parties, but we spend the whole day celebrating.  Maddox woke up to his traditional birthday pancakes.

 

 

And his big gift was this awesome tee pee I scored on Craigslist for $25!  Score!

 

 

After a lazy morning at home Maddox got to choose the rest of the days activites which included a trip to Toys R Us to spend his birthday money, lunch at Chic fil a and a trip to the book store.

They love books and stayed here for almost 2 hours!

 

2 days after that I turned 25!  Holy crap!  Where does time go?

 

Marleigh picked me these sweet flowers and my husband gifted me a pretty red mixer I have had my eye on.  Isn't it funny that once you are older kitchen appliances are like the best gifts ever??

 



 

She also got some pen pals which we are really excited about!  She has been doing a great job writing and reading small words so this is a perfect opportunity to work on her handwriting a bit more. 

 

She has also been helping more in the kitchen.  She proved to me that she can be careful and got rewarded her own special kitchen cutting knife and has taken over the veggie chopping prep at lunch and dinner.

 

Our days have been followed by lots of outdoor play and exploration!  The kids made a club house in the woods by our house and finally took me to see it.  They feel like the coolest kids on the block...probably because they are the only kids out here in the mountains.  ha!

 

Not to mention the light is pretty lovely at their secret hide out.  Just another plus!

 

Our neighbors have these awesome cows and they come right up to our drive way.  We love feeding them in the afternoons!  We named this one Basil!

 

We spent school at this spot a few days ago!  It was fun getting out of the house and taking our lessons else where.  I cant believe this spot has been hiding just about 5 minutes from our cabin!  I cant wait to spend the summer there!

 

We caught crawdads and saw lots of minnows!

 I loved Marleigh's nature journal entry from our day at the river!

 

 

 

 This sweet cat started showing up on our wood pile and looking at us in the window this past week so we apopted him and named him Peeping Tom.  He is still with us 3 days later so I have a feeling he is here to stay.  We did a study on him too and found out he is a Minx cat.  Marleigh had no idea that there were different types of cats so this was a fun discovery for her!

 

And that sums up bits and pieces of our past couple of weeks!  Ill hopefully be adding some more detailed posts next week!