August 2014

Well, it has been a nightmare of a summer. We have been in and out of the hospital with my mom since May. She has Stage IV COPD and we were going in and out of respiratory failure all summer long. To make matters worse I am having thyroid issues again and again am having to battle doctors to get the right diagnosis and treatment. Still not there and still battling doctors. I am off all thyroid hormone while we run test after test after test. Right now things point to autoimmune or cancer. I have another doctor appt. next week so we will see if I can get her to run a more comprehensive panel for a more clear picture of what is going on. Needless to say life right now is a struggle. Each day I am able to function just a little less. I am beginning to think we might need to start thinking about getting rid of the livestock because I am simply unable to take care of the farm chores like I used to. We are waiting to see what the doctors will say and do about my thyroid issue. I haven't done any canning as that is so time consuming and just takes more energy than I have. I have put a lot in the freezer and even dehydrated some. The summer produce has done pretty well despite the fact that I have been home so very little this summer. It has been tough on Petunia since she has basically had to take my place and run the house and farm as best she can. She has done a wonderful job and I am so proud of her. The little one Pooter has made sure to give her a hard time about everything. The one thing I am thankful for is the amount of organization that I have done for everything over the past year. The house is on a schedule and when that schedule is followed it makes it pretty easy for it to be kept up. The farm chores are on a schedule and makes it easier for Petunia to step in and help. The schedule allows me to function despite the brain fog. Routine is absolutely necessary for me these days as my brain simply can't think. I am just barely making it from day to day. I pray that I will be able to get a doctor to help. My old ENT that removed half my thyroid 11 years ago is the one that said there is a problem. He referred me to an endo who ran only a partial panel and said there is no problem. I am headed back to my GP with the results of both those lab tests and hopefully she will see the problem that I see and my ENT saw. If not then I am headed out of town to another ENT that mine recommended. His words were if I couldn't get results here then I needed to go see this other ENT because he is brilliant with thyroid problems. He fixes what other doctors miss. He is 2 hours away though and hard to get an appt. to see. I have one in September, depending on what my GP says next week. If there is any advice I can give to anyone on this homesteading journey is to have everything as organized and scheduled and efficient as possible because you simply don't know what life might throw at you. Like I said, each day I am a little less able to function and just getting out of bed is a real chore. I have a good couple of hours in the morning when I feel ok and then the rest of the day goes downhill from there. Having things on schedule and organized means that I can easily tell the kids and hubby what they can do to help and when I am not here they can look at the schedule and see what needs to be done. Even though Mom is out of the hospital she still requires a good deal of my time, so I have to dedicate some of my energy to taking care of her. So that is what life is like right now here around the farm. Not much going on as right now we are struggling to just maintain some semblance of normal. I can't decide yet whether I will plant a fall garden. We are still getting some stuff out of the summer garden and to tell you the truth I just don't have much energy for gardening. However, we need the food more than ever because of the extra expenses of doctors and lab tests. So I am still trying to decide what to do about that. Hope you all have had a great summer. Please keep our family in your prayers as we struggle through this difficult time. Blessings, Kat

Flying with Flylady

Several years ago I discovered Flylady and her system of home management and building housekeeping habits made a huge difference in my life. I still use many of those habits and basic ideas in my homekeeping. I was talking to a friend the other day about how sometimes it is so difficult to keep up with everything that must be done and I brought up Flylady to her. I told her what a huge difference it had made for me. Later as I thought about our conversation I thought about how I have slacked in many of the habits and that I was once again beginning to feel overwhelmed also. Hmmmm....I had given up getting dressed before I came out for my coffee in the morning. I had also gotten out of the habit of leaving my kitchen shiny at night many nights. So I made the decision to follow my own advice and yesterday once again started the habits that I learned following Flylady's babysteps. I must say I felt a huge difference yesterday as I developed my morning routine and then again as I implemented my evening routine. Despite the fact that I had chores to do around the farm and had to take my mom to the dentist and town yesterday afternoon I managed to put out two hotspots and the kitchen was shiny before I went to bed. I am already dressed for the days chores today. When I got home from town yesterday afternoon I did not feel like I was walking into a nightmare. Believe it or not, just the simple act of getting dressed and brushing my hair before I came out of the bedroom for coffee meant that I was ready to tackle the day earlier. I had gotten to where it was harder and harder to get motivated to get up in the mornings and get dressed to start the day off. So if you are feeling overwhelmed I highly recommend Flylady for getting your home under control and bringing peace in your life. Even though I don't really do the home journal anymore because it became overwhelming trying to add all the farm stuff into the journals, the babysteps alone and identifying and tackling hot spots makes a huge difference. You can see my old journals here on the blog, I think they are under home organization. I know it made a difference in my life once and is already starting to make a difference in my life again. So thanks to my friend I am once again back in control. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Goals for 2010

I don't make New Year's Resolutions simply because they are rarely kept for very long term. One thing that I do, however is to take a long look at my goals where we are at in accomplishing those long term goals and what I would like to accomplish for the next year. The difference between goals and resolutions is simple. A resolution is set in stone in your mind and so when life throws a brick at you and knocks you off course, you lose your map and can't ever find your way back to the path toward the resolution. A resolution is something that must always stay within sight right in front of you or is lost. A goal is something that you can see at some point on the map. And you see that there are many paths to that goal. So when life throws a brick at you and knocks you onto a different path you simply take a different route toward the goal on your map. A goal is a point in the future that you will someday get to even if you can't immediately see it physically. So, all that being said I have sat down with my journal from the past year and this and thought about our and my goals and what I would like to see accomplished this year. So here they are:
Grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ, work to come closer to Him and what He wants for me.

Have more patience with my husband

Plant a new orchard

increase the size of the garden, grow some new varieties of tomatoes, and more sunflowers

Spend more time sewing

At least build the outdoor oven, would like to have the whole summer kitchen but....

Raise ducks and turkeys for the freezer

Incubate more eggs to increase the size of the flock

Keep only one spring doeling! Butcher all bucklings and sell extra doelings

Get one to two inches of compost spread in the goat pasture, garden, and orchard pasture

Increase the compost piles (both size and number)

Get firewood cut and stacked earlier in the year

Make time for target practice

spend more time with the horses

have more family game nights

rebuild the solar shower (outdoor summer shower)

plant a berry patch

thin out the pine thicket

get rid of excess clutter

My goals are relatively simple this year and some things like the orchard and berry patch probably won't be complete, but a start would be great. Things that are homesteading goals I really don't mind doing in small chunks and simply taking my time to get them complete. This year I would at least like to add a couple of apple trees to the orchard pasture and get some blackberry bushes for the berry patch. Of course, in the long run I would like more than that but starting is good on a homestead and when you are working within a budget sometimes you must take it slow to get toward the eventual goal. The pine thicket has been a goal of our for a few years now, but the underbrush has made this goal almost impossible. However, thanks to the addition of our small goat herd this year they have happily taken care of much of the underbrush and we can now see areas that we can start to get in and thin the trees. Pine trees grow like weeds around here and this stand has taken up a large portion of one of the pastures. It also starts to present a fire hazard after so much time. Since it runs along the outside fence line I would like to keep it there and keep the larger healthier trees. However, I don't want a pine beetle infestation and don't want a fire and don't want to lose my large pasture so it needs to be thinned and if we at least start that will be a good accomplishment. My personal goals really are things that I work on continuously, but it is good to really sit down and think about just those goals sometimes. It keeps them clear and to the front of my mind when things get so busy around here. Once I have thought long and hard about where we are and where we want to go then I put my goals down in my journal and think about ways that I can possible accomplish those goals or at least work on them. For instance, I have found a local supplier for the orchard trees that I would like to have. I know the cost of those trees and so I will save my writing money and sewing money in order to purchase what I can. Same thing with the berries. That way those things will not eat into the household budget or money that we save for emergencies. Getting rid of some of the clutter that we have is a big priority this year. When my mother in law passed away a couple of years ago most of her things were brought up here. I have been slowly getting rid of those things and using what I wanted to keep. She was a huge collector and has some fabulous things and some not so fabulous things. I know I brought box after box after box of pyrex up here and cannot possibly use it all. So I think I will put the pyrex in the country store and if anyone wishes to purchase it at reasonable prices then that would be great. She also did loads of crafts and I brought all of that stuff up here. However, I know that I cannot possibly use all of it and some of it I just don't want to pursue so I will put those craft supplies up also on the country store blog. I do believe that bartering is great and so these things will be offered for trade or sale. Barter to me is a win win situation. Just getting rid of the boxes of those two items will be a huge step toward decluttering our little farm. Well, that is about it for goals this year. I think if I accomplish all of that then I will have accomplished quite a bit. So what are your goals and aspirations for the coming year?

Mom is Key to Family Survival

Many of you are probably like me. My husband goes to work, does the chore list that I prepare for him, and spends time with his family. He has no clue on how our household is run, he just knows that is running smoothly. My job is running the household. That is the way that it should be, but that is another post altogether. I started wondering awhile back what would happen to my husband and children if something happened to me. So I prepared a how to manual for him and my children in the event that the worst happened and mom was no longer around. I know this is a morbid subject that none of us want to think about, but reality is morbid and things do happen. I would much rather think about it now and have peace of mind that they would have an inkling of what they need to do to care for themselves. So I prepared a binder much like my home binder that I use. I keep it on the bookshelf in the den and everyone knows where it is. It gives me peace of mind and even though he doesn't want to think about it probably gives my husband peace of mind also. Here is a look at that binder in a general nutshell, so that you can think about doing this for your family also.
It is a 3 ring binder with dividers in it.

Section 1: Stockpile information
This includes a list of all the food that we have stockpiled. It also included instructions on survival eating and how to eat properly for maximum nutrition on the least food possible. This section also includes information about bartering for things that we might need and don't have.

Section 2: Cooking
This includes recipes and how to cook using the solar oven and what can be cooked on the grill. It also has instructions on how to dehydrate meat using an open fire. I also included instructions on how to use the kitchen appliances.

Section 3: Gathering
This section includes descriptions and photos where possible of wild nuts, berries, and plants that are edible. It also has descriptions on some ways to prepare them.

Section 4:Growing
This section is about the garden. What to plant, how much to plant, how to harvest seeds for the next planting, and growing a garden indoors during the winter for year round food supply.

Section 5: Water
This section is fairly simple. It includes how to find clean drinking water and how to purify water you are not so sure of. It includes instructions on how to use minimal amounts of water and what a person's daily water intake must be to prevent dehydration.

Section 6: Wilderness Survival
This section includes instructions on what is in our backpacks and the horse packs in case the family needs to leave the house and take to the wilderness. How to build a temporary shelter and what areas to stay away from. More detailed information is in the backpack. I keep this as cryptic and coded as possible in case this information ever falls into the wrong hands. Things are color coded and no actual written explanation given. Both my husband and daughter are instructed as to what the color code means.

Section 7:Self Defense
This section is mostly in how to make the farm look as if it is abandoned. Invisibility is a person's best self defense. I do not list weapons here, again information could fall into the wrong hands. My daughter is being taught how to use some of the weapons in self defense.

Section 8: Hunting and fishing
This section is all about small game that can be killed and eaten. It also has detailed explanations about butchering what is caught and killed as well as livestock here on the farm. This section includes instructions on how to use a snare to catch small game.

Section 11: My love for them all
This was the hardest section for me to write. I wanted this section to be a source of strength for them. So even though I may be taken from them now, we will soon be reunited. I tell them all here how much I love them and how much our Lord and Savior loves them and understands their pain and loss. Like I said this was a hard section for me to write and still is hard for me to think about.

Section 12: How to run the home
This section is basically things like how to use the washing machine, recipes for household cleaners and toiletries, and a basic look at our routines, and where all financial records are.

Section 13: Homeschooling
This section is kept updated with what the children are learning and have learned and where to find information and examples of work if no other choice but to put them in school.

Section 14: Business
I have a lot of stuff going on. I am a freelance writer, artist, and I sell handmade items in specialty shops. I also sell collectibles on ebay. So this tells my husband what I have and where I have it so that he knows to either bring it home or check to see if they have sold anything. There is no way that just through our daily conversations he could keep up with everything and how much I have out. I deal with several different specialty shops in a couple of different towns so even I have to have inventory sheets to know what I have and where.


So there you have it. You will notice that I left out 9 and 10 as they are on a personal note. This is an all inclusive all encompassing notebook and I modify it on a regular basis. There are some areas of this notebook that my husband knows more about than I do, but I felt the need to put it in anyway. So just put in what you feel is important and that your family might possibly need to know.

Making the Most of Your Home Binder

Spending the time needed to create a home binder is pointless if you don't use it. In order to use it you need to create the habit of using it. It takes about 21 days to firmly establish a habit. So that first 21 days is important to get you in the habit of following your binder and establishing your routines. This also means that if you follow your binder and establish that as a habit then the routines in it will also becomes habits. Why are habits important? Habits are important because they are things that you do without thinking about them. When applied to your homemaking and homesteading then they become second nature and are no longer chores. So get to establishing those habits and make a point of following that binder.

My home management binder

I couldn't do without my home management binder. It is the workhorse of our home and farm. Mine is not as pretty as many women's I know. It's only decoration is the duct tape holding it together. However, I simply can't do without it and use it everyday. I got the idea when I discovered flylady . Her site is wonderful for anyone looking to better organize their home and time. I started out by copying her journal and then over the years I have tweaked it to fit my needs. I run a farm and wanted to be able to apply the principles to the whole farm, not just the house. I have tried to get the pictures to load and am having problems, so for right now all I have is the descriptions. I will try to get the picture thing cleared up.

First I will describe the binder. It is a three ring binder and each section is divided by a divider.

Section 1 Daily Routines and Reminders: In this section you will find my morning routine, my afternoon routine, and my bedtime routine. Establishing habits is a good step to organization because a habit is done without thinking about it and no effort. So this section I have established my habits. I also have in here my little reminders to myself. I tend to be forgetful and have a lot on my mind so this keeps me from forgetting quite as much as I used to.

Section 2 Weekly Plan I have a basic weekly plan on household duties that need to be done. Into this plan I will insert chores that tend to be seasonal like canning and soapmaking. I can during the summer and make soap in the winter. If you have been following my daily chores this week you will have noticed another seasonal duty, putting up pecans. So onto a basic routine that remains the same each week, I will insert seasonal chores. I also keep in this section a running list of projects or repairs that need to be done. That way these things are easily inserted into my daily routine so that I don't forget them.

Section 3 Deep Clean Zones Each week I take one section of the house and one section of the farm to do a deep clean. In the weekly plan is the light cleaning, but this section contains deep cleaning. Furniture gets moved around, drawers get straightened and purged of unnecessary items and such. I have the home and farm divided into 6 zones so that each zone receives a really good deep down clean every 6 weeks. The weekly clean keeps them tidy and company ready the rest of the week.

Section 4 This section is my weekly menu planning and grocery list. I make 6 weeks worth of menus. I have 3 sets of these that I rotate out to keep things interesting. I always make sure that I have the food necessary to cook all these meals on hand at the start of the 6 weeks. Technically if something happened I could do without the grocery for at least 6 weeks. When I use something out of the pantry then it goes on the grocery list. Before I go to the grocery store I go to our backup food storage. Whatever is gathered from there I place a check mark by it on the grocery list so that I know it needs to go in the backup and not the pantry. It sounds tedious and complicated, but really it isn't. It just keeps my food supplies rotating so that nothing gets old and stagnates.

Section 5 Recipes This section not only includes my most used recipes, but also all recipes needed for the meals in the menu section. That way they are handy and I don't have to try to remember which cookbook that certain recipe was in.

Section 6 Food Supply In this section I keep an inventory of what I have and what I need to replace. This helps from season to season in that I know, maybe next year I need to put up more jelly because I ran out before the berries ripened or some other such need. Another example is that last year we put 4 deer in the freezer. We were out of deer meat by late summer and hunting season didn't start again until November. So during that time I had to buy more meat from the grocery costing us more money on the grocery bill. This year we will try to put up more deer meat.

Section 7 Budget and Finance In this section I have our family expenses and budget. I have a ziploc bag in which bills that are paid and ready to mail go. My husband gets paid twice a month. I mail out 1/2 the bills one paycheck and 1/2 the other paycheck. My income is erratic so I do not enter that into our budget. I also keep labels and stamps in this bag as well to make bill paying speedier. A task I certainly hate to do. I also keep calendar pages here with all of our appointments and such on it.

Section 8 Homeschool This is the section where I keep references to websites that I want to use throughout the year and other sources that i want to use. I also keep a written account of what I would like for us to accomplish when. That way I can easily keep track of these things without having to go to the computer and look.

Section 9 Emergency Contacts and Personal Contacts I keep emergency numbers here as well as the numbers and addresses for the people that i contact the most.

Section 10 Writing In this section I keep submission guidelines to all of the magazines and websites that I submit articles to. I also keep a list of articles written, when submitted, where submitted, whether they sold or returned. this helps me keep tracks of where all I have articles out and how long they have been out. Many magazines will keep an article 3 to 6 months before letting you know if they will use it so that is a long time to remember. I write it down.

That is it, my binder in a nutshell. You can adapt this binder to fit your life and your needs. I just know that having the routines established makes the non routines fit in smoothly without upsetting a whole day. I hope you have fun working on your binder and enjoying the freedom that it gives you.