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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Halloween...another step away from worldly things

As many of you know we as a family have been on a journey. Our journey has been a closer walk with God through His son our Savior Jesus Christ. Our journey has taken on many aspects from homeschooling, to homesteading and so many things in between. Each year we learn something new as the Lord takes us on this journey. A couple of years ago we began to learn the deeper darker secrets of this celebration now called Halloween. Last year we learned even more and even though felt convicted to have nothing more to do with it, struggled and failed to separate ourselves from this "worldly" event. It is difficult to struggle with the world especially those in the world that you dearly love. This year our convictions were stronger and this year we will stand together in our determination to not participate in Halloween. Not only have our convictions been stronger but God's presence and help with our struggle is so much more evident this year. There has been no grief from other members of the family, even my oldest daughter said that she felt this was right and had no problem with it and would help teach the little one. I don't write this to judge anyone. I simply want others struggling with their convictions to know that they are not alone. Prayer is a powerful tool and the Lord is so good to help ease our struggles when we are earnestly reaching toward the path that He has laid for us. Believe me, this has been a spiritual struggle for my husband and I. We grew up celebrating this holiday and faithfully dressed up our oldest and took her trick or treating. The journey is not always easy and not always the most pleasant, but in the end it is always rewarding. Since the children have so willingly understood (Thank you Lord), they did get to go to the store and pick out their favorite candy. I know, not so healthy! But, I figured they were sacrificing quite a bit and so I could sacrifice just a little. Anyway, for anyone else on their journey who would like to understand just what it is that this "fun" little night is all about here is a video and then a link to two articles that you might find helpful and interesting. May the Lord our God bless you and keep you, Kat
Halloween and the Forces of Darkness
Halloween and the Occult

Sewing Day Update #2

Well, another sewing day has come and gone. I don't think I accomplished as much as I wanted because I got a late start due to having rabbit butchering to get done in the morning. However, I did get one winter dress made for my little one, finished a pair of bloomers for her, and used up some scraps making some new potholders which I desperately needed. So all in all I think it was a good day. The dress took a little longer than I anticipated due to some hand sewing that was need to give a finished look to the sleeves. I made the dress out of a turtleneck that my oldest had outgrown. It was too big to be used as a shirt, but by some careful folding along the sleeves to create a cuff and adding a skirt to the bottom it became a great winter dress. When the dress is too small to be worn as a dress some careful stitching removal simply converts it back into a shirt. So I have an outfit for now and part of an outfit for later. One thing I started thinking about while working on this is that I need to have some sewing to do by hand ready to work on in case I want to watch a movie with the kids or my husband and not feel like I am wasting time. It could also be handy to take with me when I know I am going to be sitting and waiting for awhile. It is also a skill that is great to have. Good quality handstitching is so beautiful all in and of itself and is definitely a skill that I would like to be better at. Ladies used to handstitch everything and the quality of the work is simply amazing. I love my sewing machine in that I can get more done in the same amount of time, but I would like to be able to work away from the sewing machine. So I think my goal this week is to gather something to work on by hand and keep it ready to take or move where I am at the time. Maybe by having this ready to go sewing bag, I can accomplish even more than just having the one day a week set for sewing. All in all I think this has been a good week for accomplishing some of the never ending tasks around here. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Thursday, October 28, 2010

De-Clutter Update...Books and Toys

Well, today was a good day for the my de-cluttering goals. I reduced the amount of toys in my little one's bedroom by 1 box, 1 garbage bag and 4 large toys too big to fit into anything. I also got some stained clothing out of their that is also too small that will be used in the sewing scrap challenge. Then I moved on to the books and boy was that a challenge. Getting rid of books is like getting rid of old friends, so it is something that must be done quickly and without much thought. Their are a couple of rules though to the book downsizing...classics stay and educational stays if worthwhile. I also have a few favorite authors that I am prone to read again so they typically stay in our collection. We found lots of books that we thought we had read, but hadn't so those will stay for a time. I guess that will challenge us to really get reading this coming year so that we can send those books packing before new ones come home. All in all, I have 4 boxes of books out of the house. So that is quite a bit of stuff moving out of the house just today. Now tomorrow is sewing day and the start of my scrap challenge so hopefully some more stuff will either be moved out or used constructively. Hope your day was just as productive as you wished it to be. Blessings, Kat

No Sweat Roast Chevon(Goat)

This is probably the easiest recipe I have for a nice tender and flavorful chevon hind roast. I usually let my hind roast sit in the fridge for a couple of days prior to cooking. I know that they say you don't have to age chevon, but I have done it both ways and this does seem to make a difference in the tenderness of the meat. I just keep it in a large ziploc bag and let it sit. Now for the roast:

Ingredients:
1 hind roast of chevon
6 slices of bacon
Favorite seasoning blend
olive oil

Right before you go to bed at night place the roast in a roasting pan. Lightly coat roast with olive oil and then liberally cover with seasoning blend. Place the bacon across the top of the roast. Place some water in the bottom of the pan (about an inch), then cover with foil or a lid. Place in a 200 degree oven and leave overnight. In the morning you will have a wonderful roast that is tender and moist.

This is one of my favorites to do for Sunday dinner. I can put some new potatoes, carrots, and such in the crockpot with some seasonings and then Sunday dinner is all ready when we get home from church. Simply, no sweat and an easy to clean kitchen so that I can take my Sunday after dinner nap! Blessings, Kat

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Our Favorite Homemade Cereal

I really don't like to buy cereal from the store. It is really an unhealthy mess of stuff (and that is being nice). So we make our own and since I just finished making some for the next few days, I thought I would post my recipe.

Ingredients:
4 cups whole oats
2 cups uncooked wheat berries
1 cup nuts (we use pecans or peanuts)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
a few tablespoons of cooking oil
dried fruit

The first step is to toast the wheat berries. You will need either a small frying pan with a lid or a pot with a lid. Put in a tablespoon or so of oil and let it get hot, then add a few of the wheat berries. They "pop" quickly so I usually shake the pan a lot. They don't pop as much as popcorn but they do fluff and pop around the pan. Be careful not to overcook them. Then I place them on a cookie sheet to cool down. I repeat this process until all the wheat berries are done. It will take several times to cook them all as you don't want more than a thin layer in the pan. Then in a pot place butter, brown sugar, honey, and salt. Bring it to a boil and immediately take it off. Add the uncooked oats and the wheat berries. Then place it on a lightly greased cookie sheet spread thin and bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven and let it cool. Then break up the granola and in a canister mix up the nuts, granola, and dried fruit. This is a great wholesome breakfast with milk or yogurt as well as a snack. My kids love it for all occasions and I feel much better with them snacking on this than on store bought boxed cereal. Blessings, Kat

Use the Scrap Challenge!

In the interest of de-cluttering, I have decided to issue a challenging to all my sewing buddies (and any of you who want to sew). My scrap cloth bags are full and I have several from sewing projects over the years. So I have decided that I am going to find a use for all of those scraps and use up as many as possible. Therefore I have come up with this challenge to use up as many of my scraps as I can in the next month. I have already decided that this Friday I will make some potholders out of those scraps. They make great Christmas gifts to go with homemade goodies and I know I never seem to have enough of them. I will keep you updated as to the progress of the challenge. Blessings, Kat

Pears, pears and more......pears!

I have a friend down the road who said she would give me some pears in exchange for some recipes for pears. I took her several recipes and came home with a 5 gallon bucket and grocery sack full of pears. A week later she called and told me to come and get the rest because she didn't have time to do anything with them and they were going to waste. I came home with 3 5 gallon buckets full of pears. I also took her several jars of pear sauce that I had made from the first batch. I am now making pear butter, more pear sauce, canning pear halves and whatever else I can think of. The only drawback is that her pears are small...some are very small. They are very good pears though. I usually get pears from my mom but her trees didn't do so well this year and we need to figure out what is wrong. If anyone knows why the pears would literally rot while hanging on the tree please let me know. Most of mom's did just that. I got a few that only had small rotten spots to check them and the rest of the pear was funky looking. Those pears went to the horses. Speaking of...all the critters are loving this gift of pears as they are getting they peels and the cores. She doesn't spray her trees so they are pesticide/fungicide free and safe for everybody to have. So here are my recipes for pear butter and pear sauce.

Pear Sauce
1 gallon peeled and sliced pears
Cinnamon to taste (I use about 3-4 tablespoons
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Place all of this in a stock pot with about 1 cup of water and simmer until the pears are mushy. You can then use a stick blender or potato masher to mash them up. Fill jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Water bath them 20 minutes for pints and 30 for quarts.

Pear butter:
Prepare the pear sauce as above then place in crockpot on high until reduced in volume to half. I also at nutmeg to my pear butter. I usually use about 1 tablespoon of the nutmeg. Fill jars and process pints 25 minutes and quarts 35 minutes in a hot water bath.

Both are delicious and the pear butter makes a great gift item. Needless to say my friend will be getting some more sauce, butter and a pie for her gift. I know she has more pears, but I am getting kinda tired of looking at pears. not to mention the peeling and slicing. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Monday, October 25, 2010

Morningland Dairy Update

I recently wrote about the attacks on small farms and the attacks specifically on Morningland Dairy in Missouri for selling raw milk cheese. They are really under the gun on this one and are being forced into court with three serious charges against them. This article explains it much better than I can.For all of us that are interested in preserving our right to decide what we will eat, we need to keep those letters and phone calls going. The Uncheese party is still going if you wish to help that way too. The best way not only to help these small farmers but all of us as well is to make our voices heard. So please make yours today to protect your right to decide. Blessings, Kat

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Random Photos

My daughter has really developed a love for photography. So I thought I would share some of her hard work. Enjoy!

This is our horse Whisper Wind. She was our first born here at the farm.

This is our sorry farm dog, Cujo.

This is BC. He was my dressage show horse and now seems to be a pasture ornament. I really miss riding like I used to.

Sunset on the Farm

The View from the front porch
Well, I guess that is about it for now. I need to get dinner in the oven. Blessings, Kat

Sewing Plan Update

Well, yesterday was sewing day. It went well, I actually made a small dent in the pile of things to repair and projects to finish. I half finished an outfit for my little one, made several buttonhole repairs to a couple of her pjs, repaired a ripped seam in a dress, took in a skirt, and got a pair of pantaloons cut out for my little one. I also finished a tote bag for my little ones toys that she likes to take in the car and repaired the straps on two dresses. I still have a pile, but progress was made. There were a few interruptions like when my neighbor called and asked me to come get her pears. I won't turn down free food and she will get some pear sauce, pear butter and a pear pie for the call. Needless to say today I will be putting up pears. I think this Friday thing might work out and now that the pile is smaller and there is more room on my sewing table I might be able to find an hour or so a day to work on some things here and there. I really love plans that work out well! Blessings from the farm, Kat

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I have a plan.......

So, I have really been thinking about this sewing thing. I really need to get back to sewing on a regular basis. Now that things are slowing down a bit with the garden and outdoor chores maybe I can do this. So my plan is to sew on Fridays. I usually have all the laundry for the week done on Thursday and don't start again until Monday. Friday my husband is home and in the afternoon he takes our oldest to Piano and Guitar lessons....good quality father/daughter time without the little one fighting for Daddy's attention. I can work on the cleaning out clutter during the rest of the days of the week and just focus my attention on the little one (who takes a nap in the afternoon) and getting all of this sewing done. I really need to do this since I am going to have an almost naked 3 year old this winter if I don't get busy. I hope this works. Not all of my plans do as I get distracted easily. I already have the pile of repairs for tomorrow and the laundry is done. Yippeee! Oh, and Fridays will be crockpot suppers to make my day even more efficient for sewing. Blessings, Kat

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Gulag Archipelago

My senior year in high school I had to read two of Solzhenitsyn's works, The Gulag Archipelago and A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. Neither meant much to me then other than the Gulag was this huge tomb of a book that at times could be quite tedious reading and Denisovitch was a much easier read. I recently came across a hardback edition of The Gulag Archipelago and this little voice inside my head told me that I should read it again. After all high school was "cough" 21 years ago and my perspective of the world and the things in it is much different than it was then. I was right. Every adult American needs to read this book and every single one of them needs to be terrified by the things that they read. Upon reading one will realize that no longer are there similarities between the paths taken to communist rule in Russia and what we are experiencing here. Instead our country is an exact copy following in the exact same footsteps. It isn't possible here they say. They better think again. Read The Gulag Archipelago. You won't be disappointed. The funny thing is that Solzhenitsyn was never going to publish this book. But felt compelled to when it was confiscated from him in order to keep its stories suppressed. So in honor of his courage I am going to be putting quotes from the book under the title all the while I am reading it. It is a huge tomb so Solzhenitsyn will probably be a guest on my blog for quite some time. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Last of the Fair Updates

Well, this will be the last of the fair updates as the busy week is done and over for another year. Thursday and Friday nights we didn't compete in anything. We really needed to prepare for the big cake contest on Sunday and I was entering the casserole contest on Saturday. I also had dinner to fix for the church youth group on Sunday evening and had to take that to the church before heading to the fair. So Saturday, I entered my shepherd's pie in the casserole competition and guess what.......I won!!! My first blue ribbon at the fair. I was so shocked and surprised that tears came to my eyes. Really, I didn't expect to win anything this year. All of this was just for fun, but the win on Saturday made it a whole lot more fun. There were some really good casseroles there too. Well, then comes Sunday. My daughter and I started in the kitchen about 7am. Saturday we had baked the cakes themselves so Sunday we had the icings to work on. She was doing a coconut/lime buttercream icing which takes quite a bit of time and I was doing my fudge icing and my cake was filled with buttercream and cherry glaze. Petunia's cake was absolutely gorgeous. It truly could have come out of any professional bakery in town. After spending most of the day making the icing she then made candied limes to decorate it.Here is her cake:

Then there was my cake. I guess I simply did not cook my icing long enough. It went on the cake just fine, but in the heat of traveling in the car (even in a cooler) and then sitting on the table while the judges made their rounds, the icing began its slide off the sides of the cake. The cake is delicious, but doesn't look too great because fudge icing just was not ready to set up properly. Here is my pitiful cake:

So needless to say, I did not expect mine to even place much less win. I was almost ashamed to even claim it, but I did. Petunia's on the other hand I did expect to at least place after looking at the other youth entries. There really was only 1 other cake that looked as nice as hers. I expected that cake would win first if it tasted as nice as it looked. All of the others looked like my three year old had decorated them and some looked worse than that. Not only did her's look fabulous (appearance is 40% of the score), but I have tasted this cake before when she has made it and it is really really good (50% of score). However, she didn't even place. It was tough. She had handled the disappointment of not winning throughout the week, but this loss was tough. She knew her cake was fabulous and she had put so much time into it. This loss brought tears in the car. However, I am so proud of her. Once she got through the tears she determined that she was going to make the same cake until it won something even if she took years to do it. The loss made her more determined and more confident in what she had produced. It's a great lesson that will last her a lifetime. She has always sought her self verification from other people, but this was a turning point in which she verified her own abilities and didn't need someone else to tell her that her cake truly is a blue ribbon cake ( or at least a white). This one milestone made the whole week of effort and hard work worth it. So to me, it was definitely a blue ribbon week. Now, time to plan for next year!!!!Have a blessed day!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Sewing Always Gets Put Off

I really don't know how this happens! It seems like despite all my best intentions my sewing gets put off...and put off....and then put off some more. I think what I really need to do is start designating one day a week to sewing. Then I can have one big sewing day and work on little things in the evenings. I have a pile of sewing repairs to make and another pile of projects that have never been finished. Then there are the projects that will be gifts during the holidays. Ok, I won't panic.....but I really need to figure out a solution to the sewing situation. Any ideas ladies? Blessings from the farm, Kat

Time to Start Downsizing Again

Sometime this past summer or spring, I started making a conscious effort to start downsizing our "things". We have too much stuff and it is simple a burden to care for and keep clean. I got a good start with our closet and cleaning out some toys. My daughter did a great job of cleaning out unwanted and broken items from her room. Then the extra chores and duties of summer hit full on and the household downsizing stopped. So we will be resuming our efforts to rid ourselves of some of this burden. I simply do not have the time to clean all of this "stuff" properly and then there is other "stuff" that I am sick of storing. When "things" become a burden then it is time to get rid of them. Some heirloom stuff, I won't get rid of but will pack up for when the children get older and are ready to start a home of their own. That kind of stuff I don't mind storing. So, I am thinking that anything that might be home/homestead related I might list in the country store for sale. I know I have tons of pyrex and can't possibly use it all. Anyway, I definitely have my work cut out for me. I am excited about freeing myself from all of this though. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Pie Day at the Fair

Well, Wednesday night was Pie Day at the Fair. I entered two pies, a Mint Kentucky Derby Pie and a Pear Granola Pie. Neither of them won, but apparently the Kentucky Derby Pie was a hit with the other contestants because it disappeared within minutes of the winners announcements. I think that is what makes these competitions so much fun...sampling everyone's hard work and getting ideas for our own home baking. I should have had whipped cream on the pear pie, it would have been better. However, I was out of heavy cream and prefer that as much as possible is homemade, so refuse to use store bought whipped topping. Besides mine is better. Oh well, I have a year to come up with new pie ideas for next year. I am thinking of a grasshopper type pie (can you tell I like mint?!). I found a recipe for zucchini pie that might be interesting to experiment with. I was too chicken to try that for the fair, it really might be yucky. Then what would I have done. Anyway, I took a break last night (Mexican night) and will take another break tonight (Appetizer night). I have a great appetizer idea but really just don't have the energy. Besides, my daughter and I need to start getting our cakes together. Tonight we will get the fillings made for the layers. I am going to be doing the Casserole competition tomorrow along with working on our cakes. Mine is a Dark Fudge cake with Raspberry filling and my daughter is doing a Coconut Lime cake. She has to make the candied lime slices for the decorations and the filling tomorrow and I have to make my filling tomorrow. We will also bake the layers tomorrow also. That way we just have to put them together. I will probably put mine completely together along with decorations (raspberries and chocolate curls) tomorrow and then put it in the freezer. That way I will have more time to help her with hers on Sunday after church. This has been such a fun and exhausting week! Blessings from the farm, Kat

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

More Fair News

Well, last night my daughter and I entered 3 loaves of our bread in the Fleischmann's bread contest. Unfortunately, we did not win. But that is ok. Truly, the ones who did had phenomenal bread. The first place prize went to a young lady with some delicious bagels. I have never attempted bagels because they look complicated, so my hat is off to her. Second place went her mother who baked a delicious blueberry stuffed loaf, yummy. And third place to me was the most fantastic. The young man made....Pimento cheese and collard green bread. Sounds absolutely awful. I was hesitant to try some. However, it was absolutely fantastic. After the first bite I wanted to hog the whole loaf and take it home. Really folks this was GOOD bread. I never would have thought to put collards and pimento cheese into bread together. So we lost to some really phenomenal bread. Now, we have loads of bread at home since we baked 7 loaves yesterday so that we would have the best loaves possible to take with us. Tonight is pie night, so we will see how that goes. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

It's Fair Week!

Well, here it is that time of year...Fair time. This is the first year that my oldest daughter and I are really heavily participating. We already have plans to do more next year. We missed the day of the home baking contests because we were out of town for a friend's birthday. It was a little disappointing to miss those, but there is always next year. My daughter entered the youth photography competition and won first place in the landscape division. Can you tell I am soooo proud of her. She has really been working hard this year on developing her photography skills. It is nice for her to see the payoff other than just Mama saying it is great. Anyway, tonight we have the Fleischmann's Yeast bread baking competition. There are two categories and both of us are entering both categories. Sure would be nice to win that 125.00 first place prize, but what is even nicer is that this is something that she and I can do together with a little friendly competition. Tomorrow is Pie Day at the Fair, then we have Taste of Mexico, Appetizers and Finger food, Casseroles, and finally on Sunday evening the Best Cake competition. My daughter makes one of the best Coconut Cakes I have ever tasted and that is what she is entering on cake day, then I am entering my famous fudge cake. Next year I plan on doing more of the sewing contests and will probably do some of the embroidery work this winter to have ready. As you can see we are pretty busy with the fair so there isn't much in the way of school going on this week. That is ok. It is the reason that we educate all year so that when we want to take time away then we can. Our 4-H group entered the scarecrow contest, but it didn't win. They worked really hard and were a little disappointed, but they had so much fun building and decorating their scarecrow that the disappointment didn't last long. Anyway, it is a fun week and even though it is busy and does require some work, it is a good time to take a break from the monotony of day to day life on the farm. Blessings, Kat

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Milk for pain relief?!

I discovered something totally amazing the other day. I have been battling a tooth abscess and my mouth has been really sore. I mean really really sore. I don't like taking pain pills, but I discovered something great. I was sitting down drinking my tall glass of cold raw goat milk and noticed that the pain in my mouth got a little better after the first couple of swallows. I then noticed after I held the milk in my mouth for just a second longer before swallowing that the pain relief improved more. Let me tell you by the time I finished slowly drinking my glass of milk my mouth was so relieved. The pain level had diminished tremendously and was down to a tolerable level. It stayed that way for a good couple of hours before the throbbing returned. This is one awesome benefit of drinking raw milk that I absolutely love and would never have believed had I experienced it first hand. So for all those doubting Thomas's that don't believe in the health benefits of raw milk, it really is an amazing food! Blessings from the farm, Kat