Tomatoes!

I am like a proud momma about my 4 little tomato plants this year. This was my first time to have tomatoes in the ground, and let me tell you, they did fantastic! I am in awe of how many tomatoes just 4 plants can produce in a good season. We have had all the tomatoes we could eat, I have made enough tomato sauce to provide us with 3 meals, and I have frozen a gallon bag of peeled and seeded tomatoes for later use.

Making my own tomato sauce from home grown tomatoes has been one the most exiting things I've done on our mini homestead yet. I wasn't sure how to make home made sauce, so I had to turn to my trusty internet to find a good recipe. After finding several recipes that sounded pretty tasty, I decided that simple would be best. Here is the recipe I followed.

Tomato sauce:

About 15 large tomatoes peeled, seeded, and chopped (I didn't really seed mine)

3 Tbs chopped fresh basil (which I also grew...YAY)

3 large garlic cloves chopped

1 large onion chopped

3 Tbs olive oil

½ cup red wine

salt and pepper

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium/low heat. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic, stir a few seconds, then add add wine, tomatoes, basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook uncovered for 2 hours stirring regularly to prevent sticking. Remove from heat and let cool. If a smooth sauce is desire, blend in blender or food processor. (I used a hand blender)

                                  Some freshly picked tomatoes and jalapenos 

                                                        Fresh ingredients

                                                      Finished sauce

    I added ground beef to some of the sauce for dinner that evening.  It was delicious!

Sick Puppy

One of my angels is an eleven year old chihuahua, and she is small even for her breed.  Before I purchased her, I was painfully unaware of the nasty practices of unscrupulous puppy mills.  Although she has been one of the greatest treasures of my life, her life has also been a lesson to me to NEVER spend one more dollar to support these types of people ever again.  From intestinal hernias to teeth problems, my poor baby has been tormented with health problems her whole life.  One common problem with a lot of these over-bred small dogs is sensitive digestive systems.   Some things that might not affect any other animal will send her into fits of severe vomiting and diarrhea.   Sadly, she is having one these episodes now. 

After years of taking her to different vets, rounds and rounds of antibiotics, and hours spent reading online, I believe the single biggest contributor to this is mold/fungus in store bought dog food.  I am attempting to treat her this time from home.  The consensus of my research has led to me to act as follows, and if she is not showing signs of improvement by this evening, I will call my vet.  She began vomiting yesterday around 2 PM, and the diarrhea started about 30 minutes later.  I have been watching her closely and keeping water next to her in hopes that she will stay hydrated.  I attempted to give her pedialite, but she would not take it.

In accordance with my reading, I allowed her to fast the remainder of the day yesterday to give her system time to clean itself out.  In preparation, I boiled some rice and a chicken breast last night.  This morning after she passed some semi solid stool, I gave her a tiny amount of chicken broth.  She was not able to keep it down.  She is however acting like she is beginning to feel better.  I plan on offering her the broth each hour for the next couple of hours.  Once she successfully keeps this down, I will move on to the chicken and rice mixture.  However, if she cannot keep the broth down by afternoon, I will have to seek help from my vet to rehydrate her.

It hurts me to my very soul to see her this way.  I think that after this bout, I am going to try making homemade dog food from now on.  I will update this post with her progress over the next 24 hours.

Update:  It is nearly 9am, and I am happy to report that she has been able to keep down 2 tiny bowls of broth.  She has been walking around and even wagging her tail every now and then.  I think we are headed in the right direction.

Update 2:  Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse later that day, and, bless her heart, she ended up at the vet.  It is 2 days later, and she is finally home.  She kept down the food we gave her last night, but she is skinny and obviously still not feeling good.  The vet did tell me that I was on the right track with the broth and Chicken, and that he thought making her dog food myself was a good idea.  For now, I am just watching her and hoping to see her prancing around and wagging her tail very soon.

A Really Great Day

There are so many topics that I cannot wait to delve into for future posts here. I already have a notebook full of ideas and a file of pictures just waiting for a little attention. You see, I am one of “those” people. I can't really turn off unless I'm asleep, and even then I will sometimes dream of things I am doing in my waking life. It can be exhausting, and occasionally it can get the better of me. So, from time to time, I force myself to disconnect, stop all projects, slow way down, and just be. Yesterday was one of those days.

I am a morning person, so when I woke nearly in tears from the mental exhaustion of my work week and just wanted to go back to sleep, I knew it was a day for nothing. My loving husband caught on to just what I needed immediately. After some sweet affection and a couple cups of coffee perfection, my dearest recommend a rare treat... breakfast out. We feasted on the delights of such southern favorites as buttermilk biscuits, pancakes, and sausage at one of our local Mom and Pop's where you can still get breakfast including tip for around $10. Amazing! It's like food therapy.

Just when I thought the morning couldn't get any better, my precious man took me for a drive in the country. We drove to a place I know where goats roam and you sometimes have to stop for guineas to cross the road. Clouds that had covered the sky earlier began to move, and in poetic, ironic beauty, the sky opened to reveal a glorious afternoon. The remainder of the day was spent just as lazily. We played a game and dined on popcorn, we went for a long liesurely bike ride, we played with the chickens, and finally we took a refreshing swim to cool us off.

After our showers, we wrapped our perfect day by sharing a bottle of wine over a dinner that we prepared together. Each component of our meal consisted of home and locally grown foods. It was beautiful. I wish I had taken pictures. As I lay in bed later in the evening, I remembered and was greatful that I am truly blessed in so many ways. My eyelids were heavy with a happy tiredness, and when I fell into dreams, all was right in my world.

Compost

Ironically, before my inspiration to live a more simple life, I had never even heard the term “homesteading”. It did not take many trips to the library to come across this ideology, and I, of course, immediately fell head over heals. I read every single book that our library had, and I couldn't wait to get started turning our home into a mini homestead.

One of the topics that was repeated in each book, was composting. This one was a no brainer as I had already started some small scale gardening, and it was something that we could do right away. At this point our chickens were about 5 weeks old, and the poop was starting to pile up... perfect timing. My husband took some leftover lumber and chicken wire from building the coup, and our first compost bin was born. We plan to have a more substantial one built by next spring, but for now this one is working perfectly for our needs.

The information I found on the subject varied from relatively complex to very simple. I ended up taking a trip to our county extension office to get some one on one advice time. It proved to be a very educational excursion, and I left with an armful of instructions on not only composting but many other subjects of interest. Between the knowledge I gained from this literature and from what I read in the library books, I think we may be successfully composting.

Only time will tell if we are doing it wrong, but the system we are using is simple. The most complicated part to date has been remembering what can and cannot go into your compost. To that end I wrote a list of these things and posted it on my fridge. Problem solved. I will attach the list to the bottom of this post. As instructed, we were sure to put our bin where it could get some direct sunlight. We add to the pile daily, and about once every 2 weeks, I literally stir it with a stick. (It is silly I realize, but you would not believe how much pleasure is to be had in the stirring of compost) If it looks dry, I add enough water to just moisten it. So far there is no odor to report, and with each stir it looks more and more like compost. I intend to add stuff to this bin until late fall at which time we hopefully will build our permanent bin, and this one will be left to age for next year's planting. I will immediately report any problems, errors, or complete failures.

Items for Compost

     shredded cardboard                                            coffee grounds

     corn cobs                                                                grass clippings

     chicken manure                                                    hedge trimmings

     newspaper                                                            shredded paper

     sawdust/wood chips                                            egg shells

     tea bags                                                               fruit & veggie scraps

     woody brush & straw                                          banana peels

Avoid Composting

     breads and grains                                                 oils

     dairy products                                                     meats

     diseased plants                                                    weeds

     pet manure (dog/cats)

From the Beginning

After a good deal of consideration, I think the best place for me start is with a synopsis of our first efforts. When we began, we had no clue really what we were doing, nor how we were going to go about it. Of course, we knew a few basic things we needed to accomplish such as lowering and eventually eliminating all debt, a reduction of living and food costs, and a fairly aggressive savings plan. Our local library has proven to be a valuable asset in our journey providing a seemingly never-ending supply of information to not only start our path, but also a few stories to keep us motivated. I highly recommend a visit to your own local library's homesteading/sustainable living section if you are even considering exiting main stream living. Keep in mind as you read the remainder of this post that all the steps we have taken to date are a starting point. We have already made mistakes, and I have no doubt that there will be more to come in our future. The following contains our efforts to date.

Savings

Not only did we start our adventure with 0 savings, but we also had a considerable amount of debt. We searched and researched financial advisers in our area as retirement in such a short period of time would most definitely be impossible without investment. After narrowing the field and actually meeting with several of these gurus, we decided on one, and immediately began a very modest monthly investment to be automatically withdrawn from our checking account. I then spent some time with my banker to set up a separate bank savings account which is likewise drafted directly from checking. I also stashed any extra cash I could get my hands on until I reached what I considered a reasonable emergency fund. Although these saving methods are not nearly aggressive enough for our early societal exit, they do set us off in the right direction while we apply the remainder of our earnings to debt. As time goes on, I will post updates whenever I pay off any substantial debt, and I will post a celebration when the time comes that we pay off our very last debt... our house!

Energy

Initially, we just knew that we wanted to convert to a complete solar system as quickly as possible. After all, we had heard that not only would our home's energy be cost free ever after, but our additional energy could go back into the grid, and we would be paid for our extra power. Right? Well maybe we are missing something, but in all of our pretty extensive research, this is not what we found to be true at all. In summary, we have decided the most effective way for us to save on energy is to simply use less. Don't get me wrong, we still have plans for some solar such as operating our chicken coup completely with it and potentially eventually a solar hot water heater. However, we have already seen a nearly 50% decrease in our energy costs just by monitoring and reining in our excess usage. We replaced all our light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, purchased an energy star refrigerator/freezer, put our pc's and equipment on power strips, turned our central unit up/down a few degrees respectively, started really conserving on dishwasher and laundry use, line dry as many clothes as possible, and we try to be vigilant in turning off anything not in use. This fall we will be adding insulation to our attic and winterizing our home by caulking and using foam sealant underneath the house. Our current heating is electric which of course is terribly inefficient, so our next big project is converting to natural gas infrared heating. I am always searching for other ways that we can conserve and save. I will immediately post any future discoveries, trials, successes, or mishaps.

Miscellaneous Savings

One of our very first efforts was to evaluate our monthly expenses and discontinue any service we felt that we could live without. While we did find substantial savings in this area, we also made a joint decision to keep just a few luxuries such as internet and Netflix. There may be a time when we further downsize, but for now we are comfortable and still able to make progress.

We now grow 100% of the herbs used in my kitchen along with some used for medicinal purposes such as echinacea and chamomile. We have an ever expanding vegetable garden, plus we have planted 4 fruit trees and 2 blueberry bushes. Our micro farm now also includes 6 chickens to provide us with eggs to eat and manure for composting. I am constantly scouring the internet for frugal yet yummy recipes. Soon, I intend to add a recipe section to my blog where I will post our favorite budget friendly meals. In addition I plan to post about energy conservation in the kitchen siting tips and tricks that I have picked up along the way.

There are several small areas where we have found ways to save including clothing and entertainment, but I will eventually be adding details in respective individual posts. Although I am sure I am forgetting some important saving strategies, these have been the key steps we have taken in our journey. As time moves on, I will be updating my blog anytime I remember or learn anything beneficial.