Cleaning up....

We were lucky. I am so thankful that the water didn't destroy our home or barn. Compared to the towns further south, we had puddles. I was surrounded by water. We have a stream that runs down one side of the property and a creek tha runs across the back and a ditch that carries road drainage down the other side of the property. Shwew...

This is PenDot cleaning out the drains. We had lots of fun with them. She gave that poor guy bending over, a wedgie. She didn't want him to fall in. For our part, now all we need to do is clean up the mud and stones washed into the yard. Clean out the barn because the drains in the barn filled up and created puddles. I told the kiddos, this is why it's so important to sweep the barn! Wet hay is heavy! Luckily, we hadn't put all new bedding in the pens for winter yet. That saves us some money. For others, they are still pumping out their basements. Surrounded by all that water and having it flood into the yard, we only had 5 inches of water in our basement. My brother who lives on a hill in the middle of town had 2 feet of water in his basement. Neighboring towns lost homes and businessess. Two bridges were washed out and several roads are wrecked. There were a few helicopter rescues from roof tops, but thankfully, I have not heard of any loss of life. People did have plenty of time to get to high ground and move valuables out of the way. When the water came, it came fast and deep! I am truly thankful this was all we had in damage. I am also thankful that we were prepared for emergencies. Flashlights, batteries, lamp oil, and lighters. Gas in the generator. (That was funny because the kids wanted the generator for TV but we have broiler chicks in the barn that needed heat.) Then my Hubby quickly went out and restocked our supply and grabbed a few extra wicks too. We are more serious about getting a gas stove. We have a propane tank and regulator I just need to get the range. I think it will be my new savings project. After talking to several Gas workers about the need of housing, I'm more interested in getting the rooms above the summer kitchen fixed up. Another project. Well, time to move on and get something accomplished today!

A little bit of water

Mini canning marathon

I love mini canning sessions! I really like when I am only canning one thing. It's not quite as time consuming or messy. But this week I was gifted a large bag of beans and my grapes were ready AND the 1/2 bushel of beets I asked for were delivered. So Yesterday morning I juiced my grapes and put the juice aside while I snipped the beans. I washed all my jars and pressure canned my beans. I got a whole canner load, 7qrts of beans. I was excited because I had used a bunch the night before for dinner.

While the canner was cooling I made my grape jam. Usually I water can it, but my jars were hot and it wasn't a full canner load so I just flipped them upside down and let them seal that way. Jam gets used up quickly here so I'm not too worried it will spoil.

Updated pics of my critters

Our new set of broilers they are so cute and fluffy at first.

This is Moo-Moo the Jersey Steer. He will be leaving the farm at the end of October.

This is Soupy our surprise goat kid. It's from being under educated in goat handleing. But she's a gorgeous goat with beautiful form and a baby doll personality. Even my Hubby enjoys her and he doesn't make friends with the critters.


I'm on the hunt for hay. My usual supplier told me he couldn't sell me anymore because he still had 35 steer he had to winter this year. So, I'm down sizing my herd and my laying hens so that I will not have too much of a heavy feed bill. Craigslist has been working well for us. I posted a few of Hubby's tools and sold some and I listed my dairy goat kids and laying hens. I sold 7 hens the day after I posted it! I had a few questions about the goats but no buyers yet.

Today I need to go get layer mash and run some errands for my Hubby. When the kiddos get home I'm going to have them help me trim hooves. Molly's hooves are begining to look like elf shoes!
Hopefully I can get pics of that to post.

***Giveaway @ Faithfulness Farm!

Faithfulness Farm is having a giveaway. Click on the link and check out her blog! Always great recipes and inspiration.



OK, the link doesn't pop up...I'm a tech idiot. lol... I'll have to ask my 10 yr old how to do this... But Faithfulness Farm is on my side bar head on over. I also really like that she has the recipes in a printable version so you don't have to write it out or print three pages for one recipe!

Fermenting cabbage and making lavender oil

I went to the farm market and they were selling cabbage $1 a head. So I bought five heads and the farmer threw in two more small heads. I brought it home and had my little helpers peel off the outer layers. And then I shredded the cabbage,which would have been much easier if the food processor would have worked. But a good sharp knife and a cutting board and my farm girl muscles did the job. It was actually kind of therapeutic since I'm a little stressed.



I have a food grade pickle barrel that I pack my cabbage into because I cannot afford a real crock. It's on my wish list. And when I was at the Prim shop I saw stompers there and didn't buy one. I should have! I used my Pampered Chef meat tenderizer, it really is a multipurpose tool, works great on crushing nuts and crackers too!
So I layer 5lbs of cabbage with 3 Tablespoons of salt and stomp. I had a pretty good helper with that too...


and then continue to layer the cabbage and salt and stomp. When I was done, I put a layer of the washed off outer leaves on top and filled a garbage bag with water and set it inside the barrel. The weight of the water will keep the cabbage pressed down and the gasses will be able to come out without anything else getting into the cabbage. Now it will sit in my basement for eight weeks and when it is fermented I will can it in jars. Never again will I put kraut in my freezer. It makes everything in the freezer taste like sauerkraut!


And then...



I got this from The Morris Tribe blog...I'm going to figure out how to create links. But I'm making lavender oil. All I did was put dried lavender spears into a canning jar and pour olive oil over it. It is setting on my window sill in a few weeks it will be lavender oil. I also bought beeswax at the Farm market. That was $1 for a 1 ounce block of wax. I'm not sure if that is a good price or not but it's from a local family. I also buy all my honey from them.
I am going to make a lavender salve to rub on all those dry rough areas and give it away as Christmas gifts! Shh don't tell anyone!

AND THE WINNER IS...

MICHELE at Body and Soul wins the Mrs. Meyers book. Thank you so much for your support!
My goal is to start posting regularly. My dream has always been to be a writer but I've never committed to anything. I read all the time, book after book. Sometimes I read books that I think, "Wow, I could have written that!" But it takes time and effort. I have always said that about my husbands business. When family memebers or "friends" would make comments about wanting what we have, I would remind them of what we went through to "get what we got."
So thank you everyone who reads my blog. And if you read something you like please share it with others!
Thank you,


Melissa