Spring Cleaning

Well, since the weather is cold and bitter outside and I am trying to avoid being out there as much as possible. So this is a good chance to get some spring cleaning done. I cleaned out underwear and sock drawers yesterday. It is amazing how much can accumulate in those drawers. I had recently bought new socks and underwear thinking that I needed some because I seem to have a hard time finding any. You wouldn't believe how many loose socks had wormed their way to the back of the drawer. I wound up with plenty of socks, both work and town socks. So the new package of socks went in my need later stash in the closet. I also found plenty of pairs of underwear that had wormed their way into the back of the drawer behind my slips. So that package went into the need later stash as well. Now, if I just don't forget that they are their. Both of the children are good on underwear, but the little one loses socks like there is no tomorrow so we will have to replenish those soon. I might just wait until summer is over since we go barefoot or sandals around here more times than not. Hubby goes through socks. like crazy and I have exhausted our need later stash for him so I might need to replenish that. Today I am going through shirt drawers for everyone and also going through shirts in the closet. Hubby and I (ok mostly me) have so many clothes in the closet even though I have cleaned out things that I never wear anymore. I think I am going to put a lot of my shirts that I don't wear much in the need later stash and then when I get a shirt too messed up to be a town shirt then I can move it to the work shirt drawer and pull out a decent shirt to replace it. That way the clothes will be easier to find and I don't feel like I am getting rid of clothes that I really do use or can use. Like flannel shirts. I wear them a lot during the winter or on spring mornings over a tank top, but we have accumulated so many and they really do last quite a while. I really don't need 15 of them hanging in the closet when 6 will suffice. Speaking of clothes, I am going to work on my studio over the next few days so I can get in their and sew some pretty spring/summer skirts and dresses. I have so much fabric out there and really need to use it, plus I really like skirts and dresses and nice ones can be hard to find. I don't like long flowing ones for working around the farm because they get caught on things and dirty and ragged at the bottom. Anyway, with the cold that I am not tolerating well I am trying to keep myself busy doing something that is productive. I hate going to bed at night feeling like I have accomplished nothing. Then I lay there thinking about all the things that I should have done and didn't. That is miserable when you really want to go to sleep and you can't because your mind is wandering. I am going to try and finish up making the soap supply for the year as well. I tried a new recipe for soap that I found in a book that I had and I really don't like it. I just doesn't moisturize my skin like my regular soap does so I am going back to my old recipe. I really want to get all my soaping stuff cleaned up and put away out of site because it being out is beginning to bother me. I can only tolerate things out of order so much these days. I need to make some more towels for the kitchen and have loads of material to do that with along with some new cloth napkins. We have about worn out many of ours. They are simple to make. Cut the fabric and serge or overlap stitch the edges. In a couple of hours I can have enough made to last a couple of years. Anyway, as you can see there are just lots of little bits and pieces of things getting done around here to make the home and farm run a little smoother. These are the things that get put on the back burner when we are busy with big projects that have much more priority. Well, I suppose I had better get to all those little things. Have a great day!

Oven Cleaning-the easy way

I cleaned the oven yesterday. Want to know why? My soap volcanoed all over it on the inside. yep, I was making hot process soap in the oven and it volcanoed with only two minutes to go. The good news is that my oven is now shiny and clean, but the bad news is that I lost half my soap because it was encrusted with oven yuck. Oh, well. I am thinking that some of it can be re-melted and used for garden soap when I need to clean the dirt off my hands out there. And to make things better...my computer is on the fritz. i took it to the repair placde and they said that it might have fried because of heat build up due to ....dust. I know I know I should have done a better job of getting down on the floor and pulling out the tower and dusting it. Well, I didn't. I am now reduced to my daughter's laptop and it looks like i will be looking for a new computer soon. maybe they are wrong and will call me to tell me that it can be fixed for a reasonable price. And of course the kicker is that I have not backed it up for a few months and have added several new files and worksheets along with articles that I have been working on for magazines so if the computer is frizzled all that will have to be redone. I have no one to blame but myself. Sometimes things go wrong, but it really stinks when things go wrong all at once. I think I will go dig in the dirt today and forget about real life for awhile. Blessings, Kat

Be Careful When Tired

Yesterday I was exhausted. I woke up at 1 am and couldn't go back to sleep. So by 9 am I had all my housework done, my farm chores done and a few other little things. I started making some yogurt in the crockpot. All was going well, until it came time to put my starter in and my milk was a little cooler than it needed to be. So I turned the crockpot back on did a couple things in the kitchen, checked the temp on the milk, added the starter and covered my crockpot with towels for insulation. I forgot one very important thing.......turn off the crockpot. Last night about 8:00, I started to smell something like toast burning. I went in the kitchen and check the stove and oven...nope nothing on. About half and hour later, the smell was getting stronger and I was thinking that it was about time to pour up the yogurt. That was when it hit me....did I ever turn off the crockpot. Well, into the kitchen I run and sure enough I didn't. Needless to say every plastic piece on the crockpot was melted, the milk had burned completely up (that was probably the burnt toast smell), my towels covering the crockpot were covered in a brown stain. Don't know if they singed or if it was just the smoke from the burning milk. Needless to say my crockpot is ruined and I will never do something while so tired again that I can't think straight. So be careful ladies when you are really tired. I got a real good reminder last night of how easily it could have been to burn down our house. Oh, well....I needed a new crockpot anyway. Blessings, Kat

How Does it Get This Dirty?!!!

Really, how does the refrigerator get so dirty? We put clean things in, we don't do anything but take stuff out and put stuff in. If I thaw meat I do so in a pan, not on the shelf. So how does the refrigerator get so dirty? It is a little ridiculous and I am just amazed at the filth that I wipe out of there on a weekly basis. It's like little pigs live in there. We rotate stuff in and out so nothing in there that is growing stuff. Just dirt on the walls, the shelves and certainly down at the bottom . Where does it all come from? Amazed....and disgusted! Blessings, Kat

New Year's Soapmaking

Over the past year I have been reading a lot about soapmaking. I have discovered quite a bit and while I like my first soaps that I made in December 2010 I can do better. First I discovered SoapCalc. They have an awesome lye calculator in which you plug in your oils, how much you want it superfatted or not and it will tell you the amount of lye and water to use. It will also tell you the properties of your soap. Different oils have different properties that they bring to the soap...things like hardness, conditioning, etc. While all soap cleans some oils produce a soap that cleans better. So I have been changing and tweaking some of my recipes. Here is what I made yesterday:

Laundry Soap #1
16 oz. coconut oil
16 oz. vegetable shortening
12.16 oz. water
5.191 oz. lye

This has a 0% superfat since I am using it for laundry and dishes and need it to attract oil rather than give it. This produced a very hard bar with very high cleansing properties.

Laundry Soap #2
16. oz. coconut oil
17 oz. lard
10 oz. tallow
16.34 oz. water
6.758 oz. lye

This made a hard soap with high cleansing properties also. Properties aren't as high as the previous soap, but they are high enough. It also is 0% superfatted.

Bath Soap
10 oz. coconut oil
20 oz. lard
7 oz. olive oil
8 oz. tallow
17.1 oz. water
6.408 oz. lye

This soap was calculated to give a 5% superfat. It is a moderately hard bar with good cleansing properties as well as conditioning properties. It gives a good bubbly lather also.

Goat milk Soap
8 oz. coconut oil
1 oz. cocoa butter
18 oz.lard
10 oz. olive oil
5 oz. shortening
5 oz. tallow
15.96 oz. goat milk
5.896 oz. lye

This was also 5% superfatted. It gives more of a creamy lather than bubbly. It is a moderately hard bar with good cleansing properties and high conditioning properties. I really like this one for use on the face, but it will work well as a bath soap also.

Again I used the hot process so that my soap cures while it cooks. This means that my bars are ready to use when they are dry. The laundry soaps dry quickly, but the goat milk soap takes awhile. I have found that you need to cut your soaps while they are still slightly warm to the touch and they cut much easier than waiting until they are cool. You get better bars and fewer bars that fall apart. Save all those chips and soak them in hot water then when they gel you have a liquid soap. I highly recommend using soap calc. I really think I have much better soap because of using the lye calculator and it is fun to play around with different oils and what properties they will bring to your soap. Blessings, Kat

That Time of Year Again

Well, it's that time of year again when the school year is getting ready to ramp up into overdrive. While we never really stop schoolwork completely, our summer is a pretty light load with more reading than anything. Many of our extra activities get put on hold also for the summer so that we get some sort of break. However, now is the time to make a plan and since both of the girls have a pretty heavy load. So, we are spending the week getting the house in order and streamlined. Things go much more smoothly around here when I can clean the house in one day rather than doing the same things day after day. Since the girl's educational activities this year will have us away from the farm 2 days a week or so and then there is church on Sunday and church activities Sunday nights we need to be super organized and clutter free to maintain the house and farm without me going nuts! Each room of the house is getting a good going through with the trash bag and the get rid of box. It will be a busy week. During the summer we are so exhausted from the heat that clutter can get the best of us. There is also the canning to do and garden to maintain, so basic cleaning is about all that we can manage. Unfortunately, this means that things get pretty out of order and chaotic. I cannot stand out of order and chaotic, it simply drives me nuts. Although to be honest sometimes I am just too busy to notice how chaotic the house has gotten until I take a deep breath, sit down and then ....wow, what happened around here! So, now is the time because later will just not be good. My plan for the week is to get everything with the house streamlined and finish planting for fall crops and then clean up the corn field. If I get all that done I will be a happy, happy woman. So ladies and gents....is it that time of year for you too? Grab your trash bags and donation boxes...ready, set, clean!!!!Blessings from the farm, Kat

Homemade Soap Update

Well, it has been a little over 2 months since our family first started making and using our own homemade soap. As you recall our first soap was a goat milk soap made with olive oil, lard and peanut oil. The bars dried beautifully and I have to say that I love this soap and will never return to store bought soap. The bars last a long time even with frequent use. We have been using the small bars that we molded in the muffin tins and each bar has lasted about a month in the shower. The lather is gorgeous and it rinses off well. We have soft water and I always felt like I never got store bought soap off my skin. I don't think I did because I had irritation issues from store bought soap, especially in my nether regions. I know too much information, but you know I am trying to give a full and accurate report. I am happy to report that I have absolutely no irritation issues with my homemade soap and I feel like it washes off completely. Now the best part ever....My soap leaves my skin so moisturized and soft. It is amazing that even if I forget to put lotion (homemade also) on after a shower my legs don't get that scaly look of dry winter skin. My elbows don't get dry and scaly either. I probably will make one more batch of bath soap and then we will have enough to last us throughout the year. I might put oatmeal in that one (getting brave here). The thing is that I already probably have enough at the rate we are going to last through the year and my cost for making all that soap was pennies compared to store bought soap. I estimate that I spent about the same amount making a year's supply as I did buying a month's supply before. So definitely a savings. Then you have to consider that I gifted about a dozen bars of it for Christmas, so I figure an even bigger savings there. I even used some of it on one of our dogs who has serious skin allergies and it seems to have eased her itching. I think that is why I am considering adding the oatmeal to the next batch mainly for her. So for those of you considering making your own I would highly suggest jumping in there and doing so. I really can't think of any drawbacks to soap making other than it could become addictive and it does require a little time and effort. But just think I spent about 3 hours making a year's supply of soap. Really not that much time investment if you ask me. Blessings and happy soapmaking. Kat

Here is the link to the soap recipe post from December: My first soap
For the laundry soap I just used 48 oz. of waste fat no rhyme or reason just what I had and water instead of milk, but essentially the same hot process recipe. Blessings

How To Render Fat from Meat Trimmings

I started making soap not too long ago (December), so I started saving my waste fat to make more soap. I recently pulled out all those trimmings from the freezer so that I could render them. Rendering is the process of separating the fat oils from the meat and gristle. So I thought I would share the process if anyone is interested in rendering their own fat for candles, soap, lotions, etc. etc.

Step 1: Cut or chop the trimmings into little bits. A food processor helps with this or you can even use your blender. If using the blender only work with very small portions as it really overworks the motor. The smaller the pieces the easier the fat separates out in cooking.

Step 2: Put your chopped up trimmings in a pot that is big enough so that the trimmings only take up half the pot.

Step 3: Place about 2-3 inches of water in the pot.

Step 4: Bring the trimmings to a low rolling boil and keep them there for about 30-45 minutes. Keep the boil low enough so that the fat is cooked out but nothing tries to scorch or stick to the pan.

Step 5: Line a strainer with cheesecloth and pour the boiled trimmings though into a mold. I used a couple loaf pans for a mold. Let the fat cool, then place in the refrigerator overnight. The fat will rise to the top and harden somewhat. Now if you have any leftover liquid it will settle on the bottom. You can either choose to skim off the fat at this point or do what I did with the second loaf pan. I put it in the freezer, then when frozen i removed the whole loaf and simple cut the non fat (mine was gelatin) off of the fat layer. The fat layer will be solid white.

Step 6: Store your fat in the freezer for future use or use immediately.

Now the brown meaty bits that you have left after rendering is called suet. I feed it to the chickens. Dogs, cats, pigs love it too. I suppose you could make a suet type cake with peanut butter or such to hold it together and put it out for the wild birds. I just put mine in a large container in the fridge and each day add a good couple spoonfuls to the chicken bucket. They love it and it is a great source of protein and calories. The gelatin that I cut off the fat after molding was fed to the dogs. I used about half of the fat to make some laundry soap. Because the fat was tallow (beef fat) and lard (pig fat) mostly with just a smattering of other waste fat the soap turned out pretty crumbly. Of course, I might have done something wrong in the processing. However, even though it crumbled into little bits it definitely is soapy, and little crumbly bits are great for laundry since I don't have to grate the bars now. Anyway, I washed my first load of laundry yesterday with my new soap and it turned out just fine. So, don't waste those fat trimmings. They are a valuable resource for the home. Blessings, Kat

Tightwad Tip-Laundry

First I don't like doing laundry and especially hate folding clothes. Second, I hate spending money to do laundry. So a couple of things to cut down on the amount and the bill. First, wear clothes more than once if you possibly can. If I have to go to town and run a couple of errands very often my clothes have not been worn for very long and I was clean when I put them on, so I hang them up on a hanger and let them air. I have a special place in our bedroom outside the closet that I hang the clothes so that I know they have been worn once and this gives them room to air out. Those are the clothes that I choose first for my next outing. After they have been worn a couple of times then they head to the wash. My husband and daughter do the same thing. This greatly cuts down on the amount of clothes that I wash during the week. I will even do this with work clothes around the farm if I haven't gotten too dirty. For instance, I worked in the garden planting and covering rows. The work wasn't too terribly labor intensive so I will rewear my shirt to do the same today and just put on a different pair of pants since the knees were muddy. Another thing to do is once you are washing use the shortest setting on your machine that you can. Those clothes that were worn to town and don't have any mud or dirt on them or stains, put them on a short setting. The less time your washing machine runs the less electricity you use. Of course, dirty stained outside work clothes need more time to get clean. However, those outfits that you wore for just a few hours each time mostly running errands or visiting friends really don't need that long to get clean. Anyway, those are my tightwad tips for the day. Blessings, Kat

It's Getting Cold So Let's Talk About Chimneys

We have two good sized fireplaces in our home. One has a beautiful cast iron insert and the other is old and odd sized. We mostly heat our home with wood burning in these fireplaces and so their maintenance is of great concern to us. I am sure I have posted about chimney care in the past, but as the cold weather finally starts to make its way to us I feel the need to post again. I simply cannot stress the importance of maintaining your chimneys. Hundreds of homes each winter burn because of chimney fires and hundreds more come close but don't even know it. We are diligent about maintaining our chimneys, but we never do it all by ourselves. You can purchase chimney sweep brushes and such as big box hardware stores, but they can't replace the expertise of having a true chimney sweep out to clean and INSPECT your chimneys. During the winter months our fireplaces are going daily and we do use a brush to sweep the chimney about once a month. However, our most important maintenance task is to have the professionals come out. They sweep and inspect with a camera both chimneys for 150.00 dollars. It is the best money that we spend all winter. With the cast iron fireplace we don't worry too much, but the old (100 year old) masonry fireplace we do have concern. With its age there are bound to be problems that develop from age and the last thing I want is a fire in my attic that I don't know about until too late. In fact there have been some minor problems and the repairs were made in a very timely fashion with very little additional cost to the cleaning. Each year at the end of summer we call them to come out and take care of the chimneys and so each year we feel safe knowing that our chimneys are well maintained. Folks, do yourself and your family a favor...keep your chimneys in good working order. I can't imagine anything more awful than to smell smoke on a cold winter evening only to step outside and find your entire roof engulfed in flames. The cost to call the chimney sweeps is minimal to the damage that a chimney fire can cause. Stay warm and safe this winter. Blessings from the farm, Kat

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

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

Daily Organization

I am finding that I constantly have to re-organize things as our lives change and the farm changes or grows. I used to use a home binder and highly recommend it for those just starting out. I have several older posts about it and how I adapted its use to farm life. However, as the farm duties grew and my children's activities grew I have had to change how I do things around here. It got to the point that I spent more time organizing the binder than doing the chores. Now I use a large desk calendar that hangs on the door to the laundry room. It gives me plenty of space to write activities, outings and chores for the day. On the top of the calendar I write out chores for the kids that happen daily like making the bed, sweeping the kitchen and dining room, emptying the dishwasher, etc. My oldest is now doing her own laundry and so she has a laundry day in which the laundry room and clothesline are all hers. I have chores that are done daily and other chores are written on the day that they are done. For instance, I vacuum on Mondays and Thursdays. I clean the bathrooms on Mondays and Fridays. I mop the kitchen floor on Tuesdays and Fridays and the dining room on Tuesdays. I have done the same thing with the farm chores that don't need to be done daily, but do need to be done regularly. I find that this is working out much better as the farm grows. Organization is something that I have always struggled with and something that I am reworking on a regular basis. Right now, we just have too much stuff and so my goal this year is to really downsize all of our clutter. Part of this problem came when my mother in law died. She was a hoarder. My brother in law still has tons of her stuff, truckloads(literally) were donated and given away. Lots was thrown away and then many things came here to live with us or be sold on ebay. Many things didn't sell and are just sitting in boxes. We are going to have a large yard sale and then many things will go to a consignment shop. I have also already taken several carloads to be donated to the Faith Rescue Mission. I am also tired of cleaning family heirlooms, so I am going to be boxing those up for storage in the studio. The girls can then have these boxes when they start their own homes. I simply have gotten to where I cannot stand all of this stuff any longer. To me the heirlooms while precious are a burden. I think this is simply because we have so many from so many different people....my grandmothers, my father, his parents, his grandparents, both of our great-grandparents, etc. etc. I don't want to get rid of these things, but I am so tired of cleaning them all the time. And to put it frankly, I don't have the time to clean them all the time. Or I could do like my great-grandmother did with her heirlooms. She rotated them with the seasons. Every three months or so she would box up what was in the house, put them into the storage shed and take into the house boxes of different heirlooms. Each box was marked with the season that she would change it out in. I probably will do something like that, but instead of every 3 months or so...may every 6 months have a few boxes to be changed out. I also am on the warpath with our books. We have so many we could open our own library and the bookshelves are threatening to take over our house. We have our favorite authors and a large collection of classics. But we also have books that we have never read and probably will never read as they really are not things that we read. So those will be taken to the book traders and we will get a credit for books that we will use for school or will read. Maybe I can even get rid of a couple of bookshelves in the house. I love books, but they do take up lots of space and I think 10 very large bookshelves in the house and 3 in the studio is a bit much. Not to mention it is impossible to keep all those books dust free. Well, I guess that is enough of a rant about my spring cleaning and organizational woes. It is 7 am, time to wake the troops and get to work! Hope your day is a productive one! Blessings, Kat

Spring Cleaning...Farm Style

Folks in town really don't know what spring cleaning is. They clean out closets and drawers, yes. They might even have a garage that needs some clutter removal and tidying up. However, there is nothing like spring cleaning around a farm. It seems like winter no matter how harsh or mild really takes on toll on the tidy, clean and neat appearance of a little farm. Repairs that were quickly made with frozen hands result in tools left where they lay. The huge pile of wood chips in front of the house where the wood was split in need of going into the compost pile or rose garden. The tree limbs laying everywhere from the winter winds. The stuff that you thought possibly still had some use is still sitting in front of the tool shed waiting for your imagination to find some purpose for it. The screened porch that caught everything from everywhere needs to be sorted, emptied, cleaned and tidied. The barns, pens, and sheds all need to be cleaned of their winter deep bedding. Yes, spring cleaning on the farm is a huge and daunting chore. So that is what things look like around here. Kidding season will begin for us in 15 days, give or take a day or two. So we have been cleaning and organizing and de-cluttering so that the farm is once again a tidy little oasis in this vast world of ours instead of the junkyard it gets to looking like over the winter. Today, thunder will be in charge of mowing the yard. The goats will be given the duty of weed eating. They are much more efficient at this job than any gas powered tool sold by the big box stores. My husband is on limb and yard trash duty. All of that will be burned and then the potash spread in the garden and pastures to add phosphorus to our soil which is lacking. We have cleaned out the chicken coop and the horse barn, leading to a great start on a new compost pile that will grow tremendously. The rabbit cages have been thoroughly scrubbed and now the goat barn is getting a good cleaning out. We have a lot of painting to do this spring and most of that duty will go to the children since it is outside painting. The repairs on the roof of the tool shed are still on the list to be done as last year flew by and it kept getting put off. Spring is definitely here and so the work load has tripled. So much for the relaxing days of winter! Hope your spring is just as blissful as ours!

Rumsford, Care of Kitchen Utensils

Now we are getting into the nitty gritty in this little handbook and there is tons of valuable information. So here goes!

To clean a frying pan, rub with a hard crust of bread, and wash with hot water and washing soda. Never scrub it or the next food fried in it will be likely to stick. (Household Handbook pg. 9) More than likely they are talking about cast iron frying pans.

To clean enameled or granite utensils whose contents have been allowed to burn, fill with cold water, add a piece of washing soda the size of an egg, and heat to boiling pint. Wash at once, as the burned parts will then be more easily cleansed. (Household Hand book pg.9)

Rusted ironware or sinks may be cleaned by smearing thickly with fat or grease, and then covered with powdered quicklime and left for several hours. Wash off with hot water and washing soda, using a cloth tide to the sink broom for the purpose, so as to avoid touching it with the hands. (Household Handbook. pg.10)

To clean copper or brass. If the copper or brass is very dirty, put some fine salt on a plate, dip into it a cut lemon and rub on the metal. The strong acid will remove the worst stain. (Household Hand book pg.11)

Hope you are enjoying these little tips and tricks from the past as much as I am. Blessings!

Rumsford cont. Kitchen Conveniences

I simply love this book so here is some more from Chapter 2 this time.

Please don't follow the advice of this little tidbit....if they only knew then what we know now!
One or two asbestos mats should be kept in every kitchen to place under saucepans on the fire, so as to prevent their contents from cooking too fast. (Household Hand Book pg. 7)

A Convenient Shelf. A great convenience, where it can be arranged, is to have a shelf at the head of the cellar stairs, where can be kept those things which belong to the cellar and are in constant use. Many steps can thus be saved during the day's work. (Household Hand Book pg. 7)

A double broiler has been invented which in appearance is something like two frying pans fitting closely over each other. The meat can be perfectly broiled with this, either over an open fire or a gas or oil stove, without the unpleasantness of having the kitchen filled with smoke and smell of the cooking. (Household Hand Book. pg.8)

Gotta love modern conveniences....no matter the decade!

Blessings from the farm and tomorrow will be Care of Kitchen Utensils!

20 Uses for Tea Tree Oil

I use tea tree oil all the time in my home. It is great for just about everything. The smell is a little strong, but diluted you get used to it quickly. So I thought you all would be interested in finding out just how versatile tea tree oil is. Here are 20 different uses for home and health:
1. Use a dab to treat acne.

2. An anti-fungal for treating Athlete’s Foot, eczema, various yeast infections, etc.

3. An antiseptic to be used on cuts and burns.

4. An anti-viral: it may lessen the symptoms of colds and flu. Try using a few drops in the bath.

5. Add to a vaporizer to loosen chest congestion.

6. Add a small amount to shampoo to destroy head lice.

7. A small amount added to your bath can help with persistent body odor.

8. Treating sinus infection.

9. For dandruff and dry scalp.

10. In the form of aromatherapy, tea tree oil is used to treat colds, persistent coughs, acne, toothaches, and sunburn.

11. To create an all-purpose cleaner, combine 2 teaspoons of tea tree oil in 2 cups of water in a spray bottle.

12. Another version would be 14 ounces of water with 1 ounce of Murphy’s oil soap and 10 drops of tea tree oil.

13. Mix the above solution with kosher salt to scrub bathtub and bathroom tiles.

14. Add a few drops to dishwasher dispenser, then fill with a green dishwashing soap.

15. A few drops added to each load of laundry leave your clothes smelling cleaner.

16. Control mold with a tea tree oil/water spray.

17. Remove mustiness with that same tea tree oil/water spray.

18. To keep germs at bay, spray it on high chairs, car seats, and other high traffic spots.

19. 15 drops in a quart of water can be an effective insect repellent.

20. Be sure to take some with you when hiking and camping to put directly on insect bites or blisters.

Cloth in the Kitchen

I haven't talked about cloth for awhile now, so I thought I would do just that. I made the switch to cloth everywhere in my home a long time ago. My reasoning was to be cheap....uh, frugal. So, the kitchen can be terribly expensive if paper towels are used, then paper coffee filters, etc. So, I made my own coffee filters out of cheese cloth. They work wonderfully and are washable. I simply cut two triangles from cheese cloth that was say 3 layers, then sewed up the sides and sewed along the edge to prevent fraying. Within 30 minutes time I had numerous coffee filters that could be re-used over and over. It is much healthier than running my coffee through paper that has been chemically processed. Next, I bought some muslin and flannel when they were on sale. I am always picking up fabric when it is on sale as I don't like to pay full price for anything. I cut about 15 good sized squares (12"x12") of the muslin and the flannel. I then sewed a zig zag stitch around the edge in a bold color (I chose green). The color tells whoever folds the laundry that those are kitchen towels and not to be used elsewhere. Now I have two types of towels to use in the kitchen for cleaning up spills, cleaning counters, or appliances. They work wonderfully and are so inexpensive to make. They eliminate that expense at the grocery store of buying paper also. Such a cheap cleaning solution, I love it. God bless.

Taking Care of Your Tools

Well, it is that time of year. The last of the harvest has been picked and the big garden is done for the year. Now, is the fun time...putting away all those tools until next season. So let's talk about those gardening tools. I use a lot of hand tools for several reasons, 1) they don't cost anything to run, 2) they can in places that other tools would be awkward, and 3)I get lots of great exercise using them. I buy good quality tools from places that sell good quality tools. I used to buy those cheap 10.00 hoes and shovels at the big box stores, only to have them break, bend and generally fall apart before the garden season was over. Now, I come off some money and buy tools that will last. For this very reason I find it just as important in caring for your tools before you put them away for the season. So, gather up all your gardening stuff and get out there and let's get it clean. First you need to take a good stiff brush and some water. Scrub, scrub, scrub away all dirt and junk that has accumulated over the gardening season. Then dry your tool making sure that there is no water in all the little nooks and crannies which would cause rust to build up over the winter. I usually take an old towel, dry the tool as best I can and then set it upside down against the garden fence to make sure there is no water stuck right around the handle connection. After I make sure the tool is well dried, then I oil the tool. This is about the only thing that I use vegetable oil for and I have found that it works well. I take a rag and simply rub the oil all over the metal part of the tool. If the tool has a wooden handle then I make sure and oil that also because it will keep the wood from becoming too dry and brittle and make wooden handles last longer. Then I hang my pretty, shiney, and clean tools up in the tool shed until next spring. So, the moral of the story is to buy good quality tools to start with and then take care of them each season. Happy Cleaning!

Just a little update

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. As I reported earlier, i started cleaning out my closet. I now have one garbage sack of business clothes that I no longer use to go to my sister who does use them and another bag of semi-business/dressy casual to go to a local charity that helps families get back on their feet. I have two rods in my walk in closet and now one of those rods is half empty. I love it. I also have one of the shelves above the rods completely empty. Yippeeee! And 2 of the smaller shelves on the side are empty! Yippeeeee, again! I absolutely love getting rid of stuff that I simply don't and won't use anymore. It is a real challenge for me to do this because I am one of those people who thinks I might "need" something and would hate to have to go and buy something I once had. I don't know if that is a hoarder type mentality or just frugal or maybe a little bit of both. I do know that it is freeing to get rid of stuff. our society is so focused on having more and more "stuff" that we are emotionally and spiritually smothered by our "stuff". Some "stuff" is easier for me to get rid of than other stuff. Obviously, broken or damaged is easy to toss in the garbage. Books are another easy thing because we use a book trader and simply trade them for more books. We do keep an extensive library and have tons of books in our home, but I do find it easy a couple of times a year to weed out the ones that will not be read again. The kids toys are easy to get rid of also and this is next on the list of downsizing our "stuff". Each little area that gets downsized, is a little more spiritually freeing. Sometimes, the first time through it is hard to be really tough in getting rid of things. Each time you go through something it gets easier. I love shoes, so my shoes are also a tough issue for me. I have some that are absolutely worn out, but I like them so much and find it hard to toss them out. However, shoes are coming soon. I will spend the winter getting rid of what i do not need or do not use. I plan to be harsher in my judgement than I have ever been. We still have tons of boxes of "stuff" that came from my mother in laws house when she passed away. Some of it I plan to use, but it never made it out of the boxes because we had no place to put it. The bad thing is that most of our "stuff" are family heirlooms. Most of our furniture belonged to grandparents, great grandparents etc. We have very few things that we bought for ourselves. So we have to be extra harsh on the little stuff that we have bought or were given that is not an heirloom so that we don't get overwhelmed. I love our heirlooms and they will one day go to our children when they begin to set up their own home. i don't really know what to do about my artwork. I have a art gallery at home and more artwork than I can hang on the walls. I am an artist, my grandmother was an artist, and my mother in law was an art collector and so was my mother. Most everything in the house is an original and they all have a story behind them. There is nothing that is tremendously valuable monetarily (especially with this economy), but my grandmother's paintings are as valuable to me as if they were a Renoir or a Monet. I was an art dealer in another life and artists that came through my gallery became friends. I have some of their work and it too holds a special place in my heart and home because of the face and story attached to each piece. I guess my artwork will always be an issue until the children grow up and much of it can be gifted to them. My oldest is showing an affinity for being an artist, so she may one day wind up where I am.....too much artwork. Much of my own work that has not sold, I will donate to charity auctions so that does help thin out the overstock. I have not painted in awhile. I am sure the bug will strike again one day when things settle down a bit. It is hard to be motivated when so many things are going on. When I am painting it is an all encompassing obsession. I get tunnel vision for however long the craving lasts, sometimes a few weeks sometimes a few months. So for now, I am just too scattered about with things to do to have that tunnel vision. Anyway, cleaning out unused and no longer needed items is great! i love the freedom that comes with letting go of "stuff". Slowly, but surely things are getting to be more efficient and organized. Yes, i am a bit obsessed with being efficient and organized. The closet is finished despite this nasty cold and i now vow to not start another project until others that I started are finished. Now let's see how long I can keep that vow! Have a blessed day!