Busy morning, canning grape juice and other stuff

Busy morning canning more grape juice. Someone had extra so I said sure , what the heck. They gave them freely with the only stipulation was they get a jar of whatever I am making. Oh, they will get more than just one jar! 

So, I got busy. 

Picking the grapes off takes the longest so I pray good health to those who will be drinking the juice. Goofy, I know, but that's what I do. 

Okay, truth time.  See in the background the grocery bag. ... yep, I missed a whole bag of grapes!!!  ~insert big heavy sigh here ~

Next up put a pork roast in the crock-pot with an onion soup packet and water for dinner. 

Salsa and Dip day at work so I made onion dip with the other packet of onion soup mix with sour cream. 

Lunch was made ...tuna salad... of course it's in a canning jar.

A birthday card was needed and a get well card out to the mail. I am so glad I have days where all I do is make cards.  Hmmm may need one this week. 

That's about all for our morning, except the usual taking care of the animals and watering gardens. 

Hope your day is great. 

peace, health, and happiness 

Harvest time , two recipes.

We are working furiously in the garden these days against time. We had frost on our vehicles on Saturday.  News report of snow in the high country this past weekend. Winter IS on it's way. We are working on being prepared. 

Picked more collards. I love them. I was born and raised in the south. A staple is collards. You see them growing in most people's gardens through the fall and into the mild winters.

I picked a bunch and set to making a "mess 'o collards". 

They turned out so good. 

Here's how I make my collards.

Mess 'o Collards

About 4 cups of chopped collards.

4 pieces of bacon, chopped

3 cloves garlic chopped

1 small chopped onion

3-4 cups of chicken broth

1/4 of apple cider vinegar

salt 

pepper

a large pinch of brown sugar

pinch of pepper flakes

Brown the bacon.  Remove from pan. Save enough grease to saute the onion and garlic.  Add back the bacon and the rest of the ingredients. I simmer mine for about an hour and half.  You can simmer longer if you like it softer.  Serve hot.  I like to add a dash of Tabasco to mine. Good stuff!

More of today's picking...

We also had spaghetti squash for dinner...since we have so much. 

Spaghetti Squash Pomodoro 

One spaghetti squash

cherry tomatoes sliced in half

small onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic

pinch of sugar

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese 

Steam spaghetti squash. We cut them in half and remove the seeds. Place in a steamer for 40 minutes.

Using a folk, scrape the squash out so it looks like spaghetti. 

In a small pan saute onions and garlic. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper. Stir. Add sugar. 

Plate your squash , top with tomato mixture. Top with cheese. 

Last week we talked about water and saving to prepare for winter.  My brother-in- law, Vaughn is encouraging me to get a rain barrel. He lives in north TX. He is great at doing research and here is some info he has come up with to save water (I did get his permission to post):

Not sure how much rain y'all get during the year, but here is some interesting info that I have gathered and calculated. We will install gutters on a barn first, then on the house and lastly, on the garage.

If you have 1000 Sq ft of roof and collected the rain from the roof, here is some data that will blow your mind.

1 inch of rain collected from 1000 Sq ft of roof will collect 600 gallons of water. So here is a breakdown based on that.

1/8 " of rain = 75 gallons of water
1/4 " of rain = 150 gallons
3/8 " = 225 gallons
1/2 " = 300 gallons
5/8 " = 375 gallons
3/4 " = 425 gallons
1" = 600 gallons

I just bought 4 ibc totes for the barn and now I need to buy the gutters and we will start collecting. We have  Co op water and we pay for water so can't wait to start using free water. We will use the rain water collected for animals and trees. Just some tidbits of info that I wanted to share with yall.

Thanks Vaughn!

I did get in the sewing/craft room but it was such a mess I spent most of the time cleaning it. I am glad I did. My plan is to sew or crochet every day this week.  (yes, along with working in the garden and going to work. It will be a delicate balance so I don't burnout).

Cheers! Here's to a new week and the end of September. 

peace, health, and happiness

Planted garlic for the spring

Had some time to work in the garden this morning.  Every time you go out you find two more things to add to your list.  Today I worked the compost, planted garlic, moved the strawberries and watered. 

I am so happy Dude put in another water spigot.  We now have one at each quadrant of the house, the greenhouse and at the pump-house for the animals. 

It's a great time of year.  Everyone is harvesting, including the birds. Alfalfa has been mowed and the sunflowers are drying out. Crows and blackbirds are everywhere.

I spent the rest of the morning looking for my jury summons...ugh. 

Happy Friday. 

peace, health and happiness

Prepping for our winters

September is prepping month.  We don't live near a bunch of stores and winter can be harsh. Snow and road closures do happen.  Homesteading you learn to be prepared. 

You have been prepping food all year long and usually that part is not an issue.  One thing we make sure we have is caffeine … instant coffee and lots of tea. An old fashion percolator is great to have plus I just love the sound of them .

A stash of toilet paper.. just sayin’.

Candles, Flashlights, Oil Lamps, Solar lights - If you are using candles do you have enough?  Do you have matches? Flashlights, do you have fresh batteries? Oil Lamps, do you have enough oil, fresh wicks and matches? We do use some solar lights. I keep them by the windows so they are always charging. I make candles in canning jars.. less likely to break with the heat. 

Animals – we always think of prepping in terms of our own needs but we have to make sure we have enough storage for our animals as well.  Do we have enough hay and feed? Do we have a way to keep their water fresh and from freezing?

We had a new baby goat that had to come in for a bit.

Our last blizzard we were raising turkey chicks and the power was lost. We had to bring them in and try to revive them plus have a warm place for them.

Phones – is your phone charged at all times.  Phone charger, is it ready to go?

Disposable dishes, paper plates, plastic forks and such.  You will be conserving water at this time.

IMPORTANT – portable can opener. The first year living out here we had to scramble and look for one in our camping gear. 

Washing up – I did make sure I had a lot of baby wipes and shower towels (they are like baby wipes just bigger).

Have things to do if power goes out – games, crocheting, quilting, reading … Americans are not good at spending time with themselves … in quiet… sometimes dark shorter days without our everyday noise.  Take one day a week to totally disconnect…practice.

A lot of people write about the things above but there is another important piece is you need to keep healthy.  Homesteading can be hard. It requires a lot of hard work. A lot of pushing, pulling, lifting.   When we first started this my husband is extremely fit and it is no issue for him. He grew up farming and is a carpenter.  Me?  I am a desk-jockey… sitting all day.  The first time I tried to lift a bale of hay it was comical but you learn… you better get healthy and strong. I now am walking an hour a day and working on the homestead.  In the winter there is a lot of snow pushing, making paths to animals and making sure they have what they need in the cold. They depend on us and we depend on them. 
This year we did get a tractor and that should make things a lot easier with chores, hauling hay, pushing snow, etc. 
There are goats trapped inside the barn with all that snow blocking it. We had to get to them to feed and take care of them. 

It's never to late to start preparing. 

peace, health and happiness

Homesteading equals dinner!

Today was one of those mornings that you think of when dreaming of homesteading.  It was a nice day. We have enough food for animals and they are all healthy and happy. We have a garden giving us wonderful things to feast upon.

The evening before was threatening but nothing came of it. 

Getting in some time with Skippy. We have someone who is interested in buying him. He is a very good boy, even if he is stinky.

I dehydrated peppers, four trays are drying.

I went to the greenhouse to pick spinach, basil and tomatoes and set to work in the kitchen. 

I made gypsy soup full of garden goodness.

Basil from the garden.

Onions, peppers, spinach, tomatoes, garbanzos, carrots, chicken broth, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

And I have lunch to bring to work.

Next up was Pita Homestead Sandwiches -stuff from the garden... cabbage (traded for a spaghetti squash), tomatoes, carrots, onions, sausage (from a local pig) and peppers. Salt and pepper it up!

Stuff a pita! Top with cheese and Tabasco.

Tomorrow we'll talk more about winter prepping and what we found works great for us. 

Peace, health and happiness. 

Mass out on the prairie and beginning to prep for winter

Sunday is usually our fun day but it is also about family.  We decide to drive two hours away to see a family member in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery.  It is something we wanted to do, not something we had to do. It was a gorgeous day and the drive was nice. 

This meant I had to go to mass early. Since we only have one mass in our town I had to go to the next town over for the 730am mass.  This church is in the middle of corn fields and dairies.  There is nothing else around. I drove a half hour down dusty dirt roads to get there. 

You know you are in farm country when you go to church and there is a bucket load  full of free veggies. 

This was the end of mass. Despite the early hour it was a full house. 

It was fun to be at a different church but not totally. Our priest also says mass here as well. 

After mass we were soon on the road. 

We got home around 5pm. Took the goats and horse for a walk and then in to prep for this week's lunches. Eggs were put on to boil.

Prepping for winter -  Prepping for winter is a serious time for us. We prepare food all year long, drying, canning and making sure we have staples like flour, sugar, beans and salt.  Our winters can be harsh.  Living out on the prairie we get blizzards and blowing snow. Roads close and we can get cutoff  from stores.  We will be prepping two big things this week: Fire wood and Water.  We did have power go out this year. March is our snowiest month and this year we had a blizzard with three feet of snow. 

During the storm we couldn't see across the homestead.

It was beautiful when it ended. 

My sister was visiting from Texas. She had never seen anything like this and had to climb over the three feet of snow.

Since we were all safe at home and prepared it was fun. But when the power went out we were glad we had a wood stove, plenty of wood, and a gas stove - as long as we had a match we could cook. Wood is our main source of heat in the winter.

 Water - you need a lot of water when the power goes out. Animals need clean water every day! You need water to flush toilets (they don't work when the power goes out unless you manually put water in the tank), wash dishes, clean up and to drink/cook with.  We store ours a few of ways. We store it five gallon jugs, milk jugs, and bottled water.  Plus if we are growing anything in the greenhouse it will need water. Water is extremely important. I would rather be without power before I am without water.  We have been there when we were without a well for over a month. Hauling water is no fun. I am so happy we can now collect rain water.

So, this week's focus is on collecting fire wood and water. 

I will give other prepping tips this week that we use. 

Happy Sunday. 

peace, health, and happiness