Chickens with “chicken pox”

Posted on October 29, 2009 by cindy

Well, not exactly.  The correct term is Avian Pox, but two of my girls had it recently.  I noticed black, wart-like bumps on their combs and on one of the girl’s eyelids.  Did a little searching online, and found that chickens and other fowl are susceptible to this virus.

Now I know why egg production had been a little low for a couple weeks!  When you only have three hens, you definitely notice when one or two don’t lay like normal.  There is no cure for avian pox, basically you just let it run it’s course.  It is contagious to other birds, but it looks like only two of my three have had it so far.  They are both already on the mend.  Since garlic is so helpful when humans are sick, I decided to add some garlic to their feed and water.  I also tried to give them more roaming time outside the coop so they could eat more greens, also good for their immune system.

I don’t have a picture of the girl’s with avian pox, but this site does, as well as providing more information.  Even suburban farmers have to deal with livestock issues, and do our best to treat whatever comes a long.  Thankfully, their respiratory tracks were not affected and things are back to normal in the hen house :)

Posted in Chickens | Leave a comment

What is REALLY important…

Posted on October 5, 2009 by cindy

Last week we had a bit of a scare — we woke up at 2am to the smell of smoke.  It was definitely electrical and the house had a “haziness” to it, but no real billowing smoke.  After some frantic looking for possible obvious wires/plastic melting, we made the call to 911.  Our teens sons and I started to grab things to put in the cars.

I really wasn’t worried about the house burning down, but I was concerned about water damage once the fire department found the source of the smoke!  We had longer than usual to get some things together.  The smoke wasn’t bad, but we didn’t want to make too many trips in and out of the house.

I always wondered what I’d grab if there was a fire.  The first things I reached for were my back-up hard drive, photo albums, box of pictures, purse, keys and cell phone.  I made one more trip in and grabbed the important papers (birth certificates, etc.) we keep all together in a folder, my Bible, and my computer.  Even though the Fire Department did let my husband go in the house with them to help guide their search, I elected to stay out.  It ended up being a short in the central air conditioning unit that sits on our roof.  They disconnected it and turned off the breaker, so we were safe.

I’m so thankful — it could’ve been much worse!  As I’ve reflected on the events of that night, I find it interesting that, although I could have went in and grabbed more items, I didn’t.  Yet, there are so many “things” I cling to — that I think are so important.  Obviously not important enough to make another relatively safe trip back into the house that night.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many heirloom items I own that are precious to me.  I’ve been reminded that that, while I’m blessed to have many “things”, they are just objects and not what matters most in this world.

A wonderful cast iron tea kettle found at the thrift store.

A wonderful cast iron tea kettle found at the thrift store.

The tea kettle was a “treasure” I picked up while visiting thrift stores with my hubby one weekend.  I enjoyed finding some cool and useful items for my homestead, but what I enjoyed most was spending time with my sweet husband :-)  Faith and family — the really important things in this life!

Posted in Around the Homestead | 1 Comment

Peach Butter

Posted on September 1, 2009 by cindy

I told myself I wasn’t putting up peaches this year.  We still have jam from last year!  It not only takes time to put up preserves — the process also uses electricity or, in my case, gas, to cook and process preserves.

So, what happened?  I couldn’t resist a bargain at a roadside stand we drove by on the way to my favorite place for antique shopping.  I tried to pass them by…really, I did!  We didn’t stop on the way to our destination, but they were still there late in the afternoon on the way home.  We stopped, I bought Georgia peaches at a great price, and yesterday I made peach butter.

Georgia Peaches

I used the recipe at Pick Your Own.  Because I use a Vitamix blender to puree the peaches before cooking, I don’t peel them.  This saves a time consuming step, and you can’t tell the peaches weren’t peeled.  It took quite a while for the peaches to cook down, but boy did my house smell great.  I ended up with 13 – 8 oz containers.  My canner only holds 8, so we’re eating one right off, and I froze the others.  We have enough to share with friends and to enjoy long after peach season is over.

Peach Butter

Posted in Around the Homestead | 1 Comment

Natural Fly Control for the Chicken Coop

Posted on August 27, 2009 by cindy

As much as I love my chickens, I do not love the flies that come with them!   Because we don’t have a fenced yard, and live in a suburban neighborhood, my girls are confined most of the day.  Add to that all the heat and humidity of south florida in the summer, and you can just imagine how the coop can smell, and the flies that it attracts.  I was visiting another blog today, and it seems I’m not the only one to have fly issues, so I thought I’d share a remedy that is working fabulously.

Black Star Hen

Everything was fine during the winter months, but when spring came, so did the pests.   After visiting a couple forums dedicated to backyard poultry, the Wolf Creek Ranch site was recommended for further reading.  The author recommends using food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) for fly control.  DE is actually tiny fossilized, hard-shelled algae.  The microsopic shells are rough and sharp.  From the Wolf Creek site: “When diatomaceous earth comes in contact with the insects, the sharp edges lacerate the bugs waxy exoskeleton and then the powdery diatomaceous earth absorbs the body fluids causing death from dehydration.”

My local feed store sells DE, and I also knew I needed some bedding to help with moisture during rainy season, so I chose pine shavings.  I put down a thick layer of pine shavings and mixed in the DE.  I also put it in their feed.   After about 2 weeks – no more flies!  Plus the DE helps with moisture and smell as well.

Since trying diatomaceous earth for the coop, I’ve learned that there are many health benefits for both humans and animals.  You do need to be careful not to inhale the fine dust when using it.  DE makes a natural pest control and kills all sorts of critters in feed and around the house.  Nutritionally, it is high in calcium and other minerals.  MoreThanAlive.com also has a lot of ideas for using diatomaceous earth for a variety of household and nutritional purposes.

I am so glad to have discovered diatomaceous earth!  I have used it for dusting garden plants (be careful though, you don’t want to kill the good bugs), and have found that it holds down algae growth in the chicken’s water container.  That one layering of pine shavings and DE in the coop has been all I’ve needed for several months, so it really is a low cost way of keeping pests and smells under control.

Posted in Around the Homestead, Chickens | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Solar Baked Potatoes

Posted on August 27, 2009 by cindy

Today I dusted off my solar oven and decided to cook the potatoes I will need for my Shepherd’s Pie I’ve planned for dinner tonight.  Solar cooking definitely requires planning ahead, especially during the rainy season in Florida.  I can’t really cook a dinner dish because it starts clouding up and raining around 2 o’clock.  So, knowing I needed mashed potatoes for dinner, I decided to try baking them during the morning hours and then fixing them at dinner time.

Potatoes in Solar Oven

Solar cooking - Potato

It all worked out pretty well.  The potatoes were not quite as soft as I like, but they were “mashable” and edible.  During the winter months, I should be able to fix the whole dish (except for browning the ground beef) without using fossil fuels.

My goal is to cook or bake with my solar oven at least once per week, with the ultimate goal to be cooking with the sun on an almost daily basis.  Like everything else, reaching my goal will require planning (something I struggle with).  I keep pressing on though, know that every time I cook with the sun I’m saving my family money, and conserving nonrenewable energy.

Solar Oven Society

Posted in Simple Solar Cooking | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lending a hand

Posted on August 25, 2009 by cindy

Let’s face it — we’re all incredibly busy.  There is so much to do around the home, in the garden, with the children, and on the job.  It seems like our society has largely become so “me” focused, with everyone running at break-neck speed, that most don’t have (or take) the time to see and respond to needs around them.  Most nonprofits are short these days — short on funds, and short on help.

People in southwest Florida have been hit hard by the housing collapse.  The news outlets often remind us of the high unemployment and how many families are facing poverty and hunger.  Construction is the boon of our economy; no construction means no jobs.  Thankfully there are local organizations like Wake Up America who collect donated food (mostly baked goods) and distribute them to agencies in our area who are dedicated to lending a helping hand.  I was thrilled to find out about this organization a few months ago, and immediately felt led to jump in and help.  As I’ve become more aware of wastefulness in my own home, it is nice to know that food donated to WUA is not going to waste.  My little part is picking up food from a grocery store just a few miles from my house on Tuesday mornings.  I also built their website so they have more visibility to attract donors and volunteers.

wake up america

Like most families with teens, we are incredibly busy.  It takes effort to slow down and focus on what is really important.  It can be easy to feel like we’ve no time for volunteering.  I know I’ve felt like that often over the years.  However, as our society changes, we are going to need to come together as communities again; getting to know our neighbors and using our unique gifts and abilities to make our world a better, safer place.

Although I’ve lived here for over 20 years, I had never heard of WUA until a friend told me her church picks up food there to give to the homeless.  It makes me wonder what other, little-known, agencies exist in my area.  You, my friend, probably have similar organizations in your community.  Even if it’s something small like, donating food items to your local food bank, I encourage you to find a way to bless others this week.

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” Aesop

Posted in Simple Thoughts | Tagged | Leave a comment

Freezing Eggs

Posted on August 24, 2009 by cindy

I love my hens, and I love getting fresh eggs everyday!  I also love the look on people’s faces when I casually mention that I have chickens in my backyard :-)

Backyard Homestead Fresh Eggs

As much as I love the fresh eggs, I’m amazed how I can be overrun with eggs with only three hens!  If a couple days go by when I don’t bake or fix eggs for breakfast, they really start to add up.  It doesn’t help that neither of my boys are real fond of eating eggs.  I know the days will be getting shorter, and in a few months I’ll not be getting as many eggs while the girls take a natural break.  So, I’ve decided to preserve eggs so I’ll have them during the winter for my baking projects.  Pickled eggs don’t appeal to me, so I’ve decided to freeze them instead.

Encyclopedia of Country Living

To begin, I pulled my favorite reference off the shelf, “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by Carla Emery.

I’m freezing whole eggs, so I break a few eggs into a bowl and stir them a bit to break the yokes being careful not to whip in air.  For each cup of eggs, you can add either 1 T. sugar or 1/2 t. salt.  I elected for salt – but if you’re using the eggs for baking sweets, you might want to use sugar instead.  Then pour the eggs into ice cube trays.  When they freeze, just pop them out and store them in a freezer bag or container.  Each cube is equivalent to about 1/2 an egg.  To use, thaw the cubes and incorporate into your dish.  I haven’t used frozen eggs yet, but I’ll post my results when I use them this winter.

Freezing Eggs

There are instructions online and in Carla Emery’s book for separating the eggs and freezing the yokes and whites, as well as, dried, pickled, and “larded, salted”.

Other options for using extra eggs include blessing others — my friends love this idea!  I can also bless the chickens — believe it or not, hens LOVE to eat scrambled eggs and the eggs are a great source of protein for the girls.  The key to feeding eggs to your chickens is to make sure they are well scrambled so they don’t look like eggs.  I don’t want to get my girls in the habit of eating their eggs before I can gather them.

Letting nothing go to waste, the egg shells are usually put in the compost, or crushed and added directly to the garden.  Of course, my “composting” isn’t at all the way it needs to be.  I’m simply putting things in a bucket outside.  Building or buying a proper container is on my list of things to do this winter!

Posted in Chickens, Homestead How-To | 1 Comment

Simply…Gluten Free?

Posted on August 24, 2009 by cindy

For a while now I have suspected that I might be gluten-sensitive.  After spending time with my mom in July and seeing how going gluten free has relieved so many of her health issues, I decided to try removing gluten from my diet.  My sister’s children both have celiac disease, and mom (though not formally diagnosed) most likely does as well.  My sister suspects she has it too, which makes sense since it is hereditary and both of her children have been formally diagnosed with celiac.

I’ll admit that Mom has been trying to get me to go gluten-free for a couple years.  I resisted, primarily because I don’t want to give up all those wonderful baked goodies!  I also own a grain mill and have several buckets of wheat sitting in my house.  I was convinced that grinding flour myself allowed me to have all the benefits of whole grains, without anything (ie. germ) being removed.  After a week of being gluten free (GF), I was amazed how good I felt!  So, I’ve taken the plunge and GF is becoming a way of life.  In fact, after about 3 weeks with no gluten, I decided to eat a sandwich made with regular bread.  I ended up so sick — for 2 days — that I won’t be “cheating” again anytime soon!  I guess my body was enjoying the gluten break, and when it was reintroduced by body revolted :-(

One big concern I had regarding eating GF was how this was going to affect my journey towards simplicity.  I also wondered about the long term food storage I have been slowly building up.

Amazingly, changing my diet has actually pushed me further down the road to simplicity.  I’m much more likely to eat at home, and I’m taking time to prepare foods from scratch and to do it more thoughtfully.  I found a new home for all my glutenous grains, and even sold my grain mill so I could purchase a new, clean mill for grinding gluten free grains.  Now my food storage includes buckets of buckwheat, millet, sorghum, and amaranth.

Storage Gluten Free grains

Unfortunately, some specific items needed to for GF baking are not as easily accessed or suitable for long term storage.  I am determined to find sources and learn ways to prepare foods with ingredients that travel the fewest food miles and have the maximum shelf life possible.

Thankfully, there are many sites and books dedicated to GF cooking!  I have made sandwich bread, which tastes absolutely “normal” and delicious, as well as pancakes that my family didn’t even know were GF.

Homemade gluten-free sandwich bread.

Homemade gluten-free sandwich bread.

Just like everything else that happens here on my suburban homestead, I plan to share my GF successes and failures with you.  Along with my books on GF living, I’ve also picked up quite a few books this summer that cover a variety of topics pertinent to suburban homesteading, simplicity and self-sufficiency.  I’m looking forward to posting some book reviews starting next week.  My latest, favorite read is “Made From Scratch” by Jenna Woginrich.   What books have helped you on your journey to simplicity?

Posted in Simply Gluten Free | Tagged | 3 Comments

I Want My Life Back

Posted on August 24, 2009 by cindy

After my whirlwind trip to visit relatives in three states back in early July, I came home thinking I had survived without getting too run down.  In fact, I enjoyed eating lots of goodies from my mom’s Arkansas garden, so I was feeling pretty good :-)

momsgarden

A few days after returning home I found myself coming down sick and ended up VERY sick with acute bronchitis.  It has taken me weeks to recover my strength, and my cough has only recently gone away completely.

During this period I also discovered that I have a gluten sensitivity, so I’m learning to cook, bake and eat gluten-free.  Now I have something else to add to my list of things to learn about!

In addition to being ill, I’ve had plenty of other distractions that were necessary activities (including my business selling homeschool books), but that kept me from making progress toward a simple life.  We definitely took advantage of too many “convenience” items, and I have nothing growing except a few herbs.  Today I made a list of what I need to accomplish – it was long, but I know it is important to have goals to work towards.

Funny, I didn’t realize how far I have really come in my move toward simplicity, and how much this “change” has become a part of who I am.  I am definitely different, more focused, and more home-centered than I was when the kids were younger.  Words can hardly express my longing to work with my hands, step away from technology, and simply slow down.  When I was particularly frazzled the other day with book orders stacked all over my house, and the remnants of a drive-thru dinner sitting on the table, I told my husband, “I want my life back!”

momspeachtree

I know all things work for good, and this is just a season, but I am more determined than ever to live a consistent, purposeful life.   The changes we have already made were such a blessing while I was sick.  I was so thankful to have stocked my pantry with groceries – having things on hand for quick meals definitely helped.  Also, having less clutter was helpful when my family was trying to keep the house somewhat clean!

As I type this, I’m looking at some long term storage foods that arrived Friday. They need to find a place in my makeshift pantry.   My sewing machine and loom both need a good dusting, and then to be put to work.  But it is late and so I’ll head to bed — my mind filled with ideas, dreams, and prayers of thankfulness for my health, home and family.

Posted in Around the Homestead, Simple Faith | Leave a comment

Amazing Provision

Posted on June 28, 2009 by cindy

Sometimes I feel so spoiled by my heavenly Father!  Earlier this week my husband was offered a job – he knows up front that it is for one year, but in this climate we’re grateful for any employment.  Every job he had applied for had a salary that was less than half of what he had been making.  THIS job will pay the same AND his new employer has offered to pay for our health insurance as well!  We are amazed at God’s provision for us – we always knew He would provide for our needs, but this is far more than we could ask or image :-)

This will be a year of getting our finances in better order, and to continue working toward living a more simple, deliberate lifestyle.   For the moment, we are taking a preplanned trip to visit family.  In fact, I’m writing this “on the road”.  While traveling I’m hoping to use some of the down time to read and do some hand-sewing.  My current read is “Simpler Living Compassionate Life”, which contains essays by various authors regarding voluntary simplicity from a Christian perspective. 

I’m hoping to post some photos during our travels.  I’m especially looking forward to visiting my mom’s place in Arkansas.  It sounds like she has a huge garden, and they also raise goats and sheep.  I’ve brought a notebook, and hope to pick up some recipes and other homestead advice from her.  She was raised on a farm in Indiana, but we’ve never talked much about farm life.  We lived in the suburbs when I was growing up :-)   Sadly, I’ve not really had much interest in home skills for much of my adult life, so I’ve missed lots of opportunities to glean from both Mom and her mother, who passed away several years ago.  Although I acknowledge missed opportunities, I’m resolved to continue learning and move forward from here!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes they’d taken an interest in the “old paths” sooner.  It is important both to be willing to share our knowledge with others, as well as, be willing to learn from the older, wiser women in our lives.  I know I’m grateful for those who chosen to share their journey with me, both in person and on blogs.

Posted in Around the Homestead, Simple Faith | Tagged | 2 Comments