Category: Homestead

Rosemary Herb #AfterMyCoffee

4/7/2016

Rosemary can be grown as a house plant and used fresh. It's a very pretty and fragrant plant. It contains flavonoids and camphor...

Rosemary is an herb I primarily use as seasoning for tomato based dishes. We love pizza, spaghetti & lasagna. I'll use it in meatloaf sometimes too. I keep my dried herbs in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. I buy it in bulk because I also use it to sprinkle behind furniture to deter pests in our home. Rosemary can be grown as a house plant and used fresh. It's a very pretty and fragrant plant. It contains flavonoids and camphor which are traditionally used to ease sore throats. The stimulant, astringent and anti-inflammatory properties may also encourage circulation & hair growth and ease migraine or achy muscles. (I'm not a 'health care professional'. Make sure to research for yourself.)

Rosemary can be used in a number of ways:

Infusion - A strong tea can be massaged into scalp to encourage hair growth. I mix it with other herbs and make a thick muddy, looking goo to treat my hair with about once a month or so. If nothing else it's a relaxing treatment and leaves my hair looking a bit healthier.
Tincture - An tonic for stress.
Essential oil - May improve concentration and sooth sore muscles.
Leaves - Dried or fresh they make a nice seasoning for tomato based recipes.

Rosemary is one of my favorite spices in cooking, but after doing the research for this post, I may have to try a few new things with it. Let me know what you use Rosemary for!

Mountain Rose Herbs has rosemary in several forms. I usually buy bulk dried herb from there or the essential oil from Vitacost.com.

Here's also a short & informative video from my friend Virginia George.

Last week's favorite:

After My Coffee Blog Hop Linky Party at Prairie Dust Trail

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Pistols N Petticoats #AfterMyCoffee

12/17/2015

6 Comments

I live in the Midwest. My heritage is in Cimarron Territory, No Man's Land Oklahoma. This is where Jessie James & many other Wild West Gangs came to hide from the Lawmen. Seriously, the

I almost hate to write about this, not because I want to be politically correct or anything but because I'm not sure how much information is "safe" for me to put "out there" into cyber-land. There are a few things that should be pretty basic though. I live in the Midwest. My heritage is in Cimarron Territory, No Man's Land Oklahoma. This is where Jessie James & many other Wild West Gangs came to hide from the Lawmen. Seriously, the "Hang'n Tree" only fell down a few years ago. I'm just miles from the old Dalton Gang Hideout. We have cougars, rabid skunks, & rattle snakes out here. Suffice it to say, the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is important to us, VERY important.

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I learned how to shoot a gun when I was eight years old and I'm a crack shot. I'm not bragging, it's just a fact. I also really enjoy target practice & shooting clay pigeons. I don't hunt. We usually have neighbors who get more than they can eat & share with us. I love fresh game and I'm a good cook with it.

We've always had guns around. We taught our children from babies to respect them. They had toy guns & were never allowed to handle them in a manner that would be unsafe with a real one. It's very important to us.

We've also always watched western shows with guns. Our favorites for the children when they were young were The Gospel Bill Show and Wichita Slim. Of course, Roy Rogers, Annie Oakley, The Lone Ranger, and Little House on the Prairie are favorites too...

I've met a few women through the years who've not wanted to have anything to do with guns or let their children have anything to do with them. At some point it becomes an issue when the husband & father of the home decides a gun is necessary for some reason. I've seen the struggle. Here is some advice I've recently given:

Trust your husband.
Educate yourself. Take some classes and learn to take it apart & put it back together. You don't have to ever like the gun but educating yourself will help you come to terms with the new tool.
Think of it as a tool, not a weapon. People can be killed with shovels, screwdrivers...blah, blah, blah. Put this into perspective & it will be easier for you to help your husband educate the children about it, empowering your children to make informed & responsible decisions.

I hold firmly to this. I'd never try to push someone to own or handle a gun if they aren't comfortable with it, but there are instances when the need presents itself.

Jesus even told his disciples to get swords. (Luke 22:36) It didn't mean he wanted them going around cutting people's ears off with them. (Matt. 26, Mark 14, John 18) The Judean desert has snakes and wild animals too.

Here's a fun old TV show about women in the wild west with guns. It's become one of our family's favorites. I hope you enjoy it!

Favorite from last week:

And may our hearts be ever ready to pour out to Him, that He may use the gifts He has put in us each as worship that will shine forth to others in need of His quieting love, his songs of rejoicing, his promise to be with us always. Christmas on parade every day…

Today, Listen for Angel Songs Around You… by Pam@Writing...Apples of Gold

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Cat & Kitten Books #WhatToRead

10/21/2015

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Cats are an important part of farm life. Rodents are a reality and cats (if they are worth their fur & flea collar) help keep life in the barn bearable. I have many farming friends and neighbors who also have them in the house. I personally don't like litter boxes so our cats seldom come in. Our Crazy-Cat-Lady in training does bring the kittens in to play occasionally and we really enjoy their playful antics. On the farm, cats are very inexpensive pets. They have plenty of rodents & small birds, like barn swallows (which we also get overrun with) to eat. We do purchase flea & tick collars in summer and a little cat food in winter. We also usually have the males neutered to help prevent unhealthy inbreeding.

Cats are also a good way to teach children gentleness. Little kittens are small and easy for little hands, but they can scratch very early, teaching consequences for actions. I've never coddled one of our children when they got a cat scratch. I've always told them if they be more careful it won't happen. I also wash the scratches with soap and water and apply iodine or peroxide, which is an additional consequence for being too rough. Another great lesson the children learn is about death on the farm. Farm kitties don't have a long life expectancy. There are many predators around the farm and sometimes accidents happen when a cat gets on the wrong end of moving equipment. These are perfect times to help the children learn how to cope with loss and to learn to enjoy and care for the lives God has blessed the farm with. Farm & Homestead life can be harsh, but the rewards and lessons learned are worth the sacrifices.

Here are some fun books for the children to learn more about cats.

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This delightful series of board books is aimed at very young children. The bright pictures, with their patches of different textures, are designed to develop sensory and language awareness. Babies and toddlers will love turning the pages and touching the feely patches.

A cat's life is not all fun and games, or even all milk and mice. Sometimes things can get a little, well, hairy. With very few words to convey all kinds of action, Mike Dumbleton's simple, repetitive text joins perfectly with Craig Smith's energetic and whimsical illustrations to make Cat perfect for both solo beginning readers and preschool classrooms.

Why do cats purr? How do cats say hello? Which cat has no tail? In this book you’ll find the answers and lots more about the curious world of cats.

Trump tells the stories of the animal patients and their families and provides young readers with animal tips, vocabulary words, and a new understanding of the animal world. All the patients are interesting, but some are more interesting than others...

“Take Cranky Paws the cat, for example... Her name wasn’t really Cranky Paws, but that’s what Dr. Jeanie and I called her. I’d never met a cat who was so determined to hate everyone!”

Favorite from last week:

How To Teach Vocabulary {Fall Edition} from LittleLogCottageSchool.com

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Turkeys #WhatToRead

10/14/2015

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Why always teach, talk, & read down to children? You'd be surprised at what they can understand and absorb from a very young age. I wouldn't read books like this to mine from cover to cover. Rather, I would read snippets to them, highlight some passages for copywork, and have the older children read chapters they are interested in. These two books are free on Gutenberg.org (I love that site!). Enjoy!

It's time to start thinking about that tasty Thanksgiving turkey. My problem the past few years? Cost. Oh wow are they expensive! I think we had chicken last year. The few years before that, we were blessed with a turkey as a gift. We've considered raising our own, but with the drought, we just hadn't made that investment yet. Before the drought, we had a nice flock that would visit regularly. I've never heard any of the local hunters say anything good about wild turkey though, so again... I haven't tried yet. My dad did raise a turkey one year. Mom couldn't eat it. It had followed her around like a puppy and I don't think she has eaten turkey at all since!

As you should know by now, I LOVE very old books. I also love encouraging parents & grandparents to read these very old books with their children & grandchildren. Why always teach, talk, & read down to children? You'd be surprised at what they can understand and absorb from a very young age. I wouldn't read books like this to mine from cover to cover. Rather, I would read snippets to them, highlight some passages for copywork, and have the older children read chapters they are interested in. These two books are free on Gutenberg.org (I love that site!). Enjoy!

Margaret Mahaney Talks About Turkeys: The Skillful New England Raiser Tells Us Some of the Secrets of the Successful Raising of Turkeys was originally published in 1915. "The one great essential on the part of a person raising or attempting to raise turkeys is patience, or persistency, whichever you care to call it. To anyone thinking of starting in this work I can only say that you will meet with plenty of difficulties and much that will discourage and dishearten you, but when you remember that each failure or discouragement means just that much more added to your knowledge of, and experience in this work, it should give you heart to keep on, and if you do keep on and on, using each little bit of experience thus gained and using it to good effect, in the end success is bound to come. I am going to tell you a few of the discouraging things that happened to me, and also of my method of raising turkeys, a method based on long experience and perfected in the face of many discouragements, and I hope that in the telling, you may learn something that will be of benefit."

The Wild Turkey and Its Hunting by Edward Avery McIlhenny was originally published in 1914. Reviewers on Amazon say: "A scarce title about turkey hunting in the old days. It will give you a new perspective on turkey hunting." & "My husband is really enjoying reading this book." Note: There is a chapter on "prehistoric" turkeys which is kinda funny, talking about turkey skeletons and fossils. The author was definitely an evolutionist and trying to sound scientific. There is neat information about wild turkey eggs, behavior, and habitats. The pictures are pretty amazing. The language in some of it is really neat too; "Sometimes, though rarely, I have known an old monarch to take a companion gobbler into the very bosom of his harem, however strange this may appear. I have known of half a dozen instances of this nature where two old gobblers have formed an inseparable alliance and remained together staunch friends for years."

Here are two sites with a nice variety of free turkey coloring pages too. Both of these coloring images take you to the site's turkey page with over a dozen different coloring pages each! The children can pick out their favorites or you can print out a whole little turkey coloring book for them. FUN!

Wildlife-Animals.com

SuperColoring.com

My favorite from last week:

No matter if you homeschool, public school or private school, reading to your children is never a bad idea or time wasted. Nature books for preschoolers are among our favorite to read. Wyatt loves to be outside and is quite intrigued by nature so we’ve been reading lots of nature and animal books lately. Since I feel like the Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling fits our family well I’ve been focusing on as much “non-twaddle”, living books as I can.

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Sandplums #AfterMyCoffee

8/13/2015

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Yes, I'm a 5th generation OK panhandle pioneer, but... I DON'T have a green thumb and I know next to nothing about gardening or preserving foods. There. I said it. It hurts to admit, but I came from a generation that was taught very little about homemaking and old-fashioned farm life. I was either "under foot" or should be spending my time pursuing a career. I really don't remember anyone in my family canning, so they probably did it when I was gone. Sandplum Jelly is a delight out here.

Sandplums grow wild in nearly all of Oklahoma. The bushes grow thick along the fences all over. They don't produce every single year out here in the Panhandle. You can usually find a few bushes with some if you search. This year though, they were PLENTIFUL! What a blessing after years of drought! They ripen mid-July. I'd bet every family with roots out here has their own family recipe. It's very basic though; fruit, gel, & sugar... Lots & lots of sugar. I've been asking around this year for alternatives so I don't have to purchase so much sugar (especially since we only usually use Raw Cane sugar and it's incredibly expensive so we've been rationing). Some of my local OSU Home Extension Club ladies suggested they are really good in cobbler. YAY! So, I'm cooking mine down and will freeze the juice with as much pulp as I can squeeze through. I may make one small batch of refrigerator jam just for us. Then we can enjoy Sandplum cobbler this fall & winter. I'm very excited!

Here are a few online resources I found to share with you:
Oklahoma Wildcrafting
Garden Guides - About Sand Plum Trees
Heritage Recipes - Wild Sand Plum Jelly

I've also included a video with the whole process from picking to water bath canning. You'll find the OKie Prepper's Wife very informative. She goes through the process step-by-step. I wish I could send each of you a 1/2 pint to taste. There's nothing in the world like Oklahoma Sandplum Jelly!

Favorites from last week:

Journaling Your Way to a Healthier Parent/Child Relationship at ClassesByBeth

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A few of my favorite things

3/8/2015

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Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

Bright copper kettles with warm woolen mittens.

Brown paper packages tied up with strings...

Out here in the Panhandle, our favorite things tend to be rather simple, especially in our family. Raindrops and dew on the flowers and cute little kittens can make it to that list.

"Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of
thine heart." Psalm 37:4

Newborn calves in the fresh fallen snow.
Golden wheat rustling in the wind at harvest time.
Horses prancing up and down the fence whinnying for hay.

My favorite things are:
Very old books.
Soft cotton quilts.
Pencils, pens & paper in a wide variety of colors.
Brown leather ...yes, I like brown leather. Shoes, boots, moccasins, purses, Bible covers, belts.
Iron. ...another odd one... Cast iron skillets and wrought iron decor.
Baby powder scent.
Fresh strawberries.
Fire. Fireplace, candlelight, campfire... I even love my good ol' gas stove.

What are some of your favorite things?

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Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals

8/13/2014

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I have to admit to being a homestead wann’a-be. I grew up around lots of farming, gardening, canning, and hunting. Unfortunately for my generation, it was easier to send us somewhere else than to take time or the chance of making a mess. Most of us didn’t learn much about homemaking and homesteading.

After we married and had a few young’ns, I went and picked a bunch (I’m talking a BUNCH) of Sandplums, pulled out an old family recipe, and took them to the home of a mentor homemaker, naively announcing we were going to make Jelly. Her husband was as delighted with the idea as mine. Sometime after midnight… Sweating… With groggy, grumpy children… I went home with 6 quarts of Sandplum Jelly. Six months later, we were all sick of it and still had a jar or two left! 13+ years later… I still have not done it again. I feel quite guilty about it, really I do. Well, I think I have finally found a book by an author who really understands!

“As a homesteading homemaker, producing your own food is important to you. After all the energy spent in the production process (e.g. weeding, spreading manure, milking, butchering), I bet I know how you feel about coming in and cooking the evening meal. You are exhausted, right?”

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You’re not kid’n Carol! This is NOT a fix-it & forget-it cookbook. This book will take you in-hand and help you live homestead health without exhausting yourself in the process. She helps you with such things as:

Whether to can or freeze your veggies.
Butchering big game.
Processing meat.
Making soup stock.
Meals in jars.
Making meat stretch farther.
Bread, Granola, & Yogurt.
Apples, apples, and more apples!
Simple meal planning & various helpful recipes.

(Maybe I CAN tackle those Sandplum bushes!…)

Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals shows you, the busy homesteading homemaker, how to prepare your food at harvest time so you spend less time making supper the rest of the year. It shows you how to prepare simple, healthy foods that do not require a culinary degree for those nights when you lack the energy to chop, braise, caramelize, or glaze.

Nothing relieves stress in a woman’s life like knowing what’s for supper. Having meals put up, having a system to live by, and casting off the expectations that every meal needs to be a gourmet affair will bring you renewed energy of mind and spirit. In fact, quick stress-free home cooking makes the entire family happy.

In addition, how would you like to:

have cookies warm from the oven every day when your kids step off the bus,
take a new mom a meal without adding to your already heavy work load,
say “No” to the local drive-thru after an exhausting shopping day because you know supper can be ready before the kids unload the car,
save enough money to buy something special,
or welcome unexpected company with a smile because simply adding one more jar to the pot makes supper with friends a possibility?

When you implement the techniques in Homestead Cooking with Carol you can do all this and more. As an added bonus, the book includes free menu-planning worksheets to print and use to simplify your journey to Bountiful Make-ahead Meals.

Freelance journalist Carol J. Alexander specializes in all things home. Since 2007, her writing has motivated and inspired both new homesteaders and homesteading wannabes in their journeys to living a sustainable lifestyle. Homeschooling, parenting, natural living, herbal medicine, and frugal living are topics that round out her portfolio.

Carol’s work has appeared in BackHome, Grit, Hobby Farms, Urban Farm, From Scratch, Home Education, The Old Schoolhouse, and in regional parenting magazines all over North America.

As a columnist for her local newspaper, several highly trafficked blogs, and a national magazine, Carol understands the meaning of a deadline. Discipline, attention to detail, research, and interviewing skills have made it possible for her writing to reach millions of readers with the message, “If I can do it, and have enough energy left over to tell you about it, then you can do it too.”

Carol’s can-do attitude is most evident in her series Lessons from the Homestead. Written to show parents how to teach their children academic skills alongside their farm chores, each booklet features over 50 lessons in math, science, language, and more.

A homeschooling parent herself since 1993, Carol understands that getting all the farm chores done, plus all the schoolwork too, can seem monumental at times. So monumental that folks may feel tempted to pull up their stakes in the country and move back to the pavement. When that crisis point comes, every time it comes, Carol is there to help.

Carol lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, four of their six children, and the usual homestead critters. When not writing, you can find her in the garden wishing for things to grow, or in the kitchen putting up her bounty.

The PRINT version of the book is only available on Carol’s website:
Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals
and at The Book Patch.

You can also find her at:
CarolJAlexander.com
Tweet with Carol on Twitter
Everything with Carol on Facebook
Carol J. Alexander’s facebook Author page
Carol J. Alexander, Amazon Page (where it is available on Kindle)

I received this product free in the hope I would mention it on my blog. This is an honest review. I only recommend things I use or think my readers would enjoy. See our disclosure policy for details.

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Contentment and Goal Setting

1/27/2014

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Contentment can be a struggle. I don’t want to be anxious, but I also don’t want to become complacent or apathetic. I’m a goal setter. I love looking forward to new adventure. Sometimes it’s really hard to know the difference. For instance:

I love our little farm, but I’d really like to save up for more land.
I love our animals, but we are planning to get more goats this spring.
I love our home, but I love dreaming of log cabins.
I love my husband, but I’m always looking for ways to keep our relationship fresh and fulfilling.
I enjoy reading my Bible, but I have a hunger for deeper understanding.
I love this land, but I look forward to spending eternity in heaven.

It would be nice to have a more flexible budget, but I know these verses are so true:

Luke 12:15 “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
Phil 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
1 Timothy 6:7 “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”

Sometimes trusting God and working toward goals can be a hard line to walk. I don’t want to lazily wait around for God to do everything, but I don’t want to be impatiently chasing my own will. Each person has their limit and each season in life offers different motivations and trials.

The hardest thing is keeping my eyes on the path set before me. I tend to want to stop, look around, and compare my path and possessions with those of others. That’s when covetousness and discontent creep in and I start getting discouraged. A discouraged mommy is not a happy mommy. No Fun!

I really do best when I have projects, plans, and goals that I’m working toward AND special times to sit and reflect on all the LORD is doing in our lives. I don’t want to overwhelm myself with too much or end up with a TON of unfinished projects. (That’s usually where I feel I am!) Balance and Priorities. That constant struggle! If we have the right perspective, we can see it as a grand adventure.

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Star Chronicles: A Bible-Based Study of the Stars

Howdy Y'all! I’m Dawnita, 5th generation Oklahoma Panhandle Pioneer, mother of six young'ns and author of Star Chronicles: A Bible Based Study of the Stars. I love hot drinks, sewing & crafts, and very old books.

☕ Faith-based, sustainable self-sufficiency ☕ Courses & events in homesteading, homeschool & homemaking ☕ Freelance Journalist (Oil, Ag & Conservative Politics) ☕ Helping today's pioneer families weather the dust storms of life with God's Divine help.

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