What Will We Need? How long did our winter harvest last?

A quick little post today guys to record some important information. 

1.  We had a bushel and a half of apples and it lasted us through February.  We dehydrated it and made applesauce.  I ate apples in my oatmeal and for  snacks and it lasted through mid January.  Finishing up the last quart of applesauce out of 5 qrts. in the next couple days.  Supplemented with cranberry sauce (bought at 99cents a bag; 2 bags made about 6 half pints of sauce)  I bought a couple batches of bananas but otherwise the apples and cranberries lasted.  Just made my second bag of cranberries sauce the morning of this writing.  Would like to have another 1/2 bushel of apples for juicing next year and another supplement of another fruit for winter. Strawberries?

2.  I bought butternut squash, acorn squash and sweet potatoes through the fall and still have 2 acorn squash left. Eric and Ashton quickly tired of sweet potatoes, maybe alternate with baking potatoes-  will grow both hopefully to strike a good balance.  We like butternut much better than acorn, will want more next year with only a couple acorn.  Would like supplement of Kale and lettuce started in July and September for longer harvest- lettuce lasted until mid January under a plexi glass cover even with deep freezing temps. 

3. 28 pounds of deer meat lasted us until last week of February (received mid December) 1lb ground bags.  Goal to have 2 deer next year.  One ground one cut for steaks and sausage.  Really sucks that I will be buying other meats other than chicken in March. 

Learning more about deer skinning and processing- will need to prepare place to process or go to friends house to process. 

More info to come; will start gardening log soon. 

A New Level of Freedom.

   
Hello All,

I wanted to write a quick post to celebrate a milestone.  It has been two years since I have accepted a paycheck from an employer.  Well, let me be a bit more clear.  The employer I now work for is my self.  It is such a feeling of empowerment knowing that the money you just put in your bank account isn't from the work you did for someone else, but actually the money you earned working for yourself.    That is a feeling of true freedom. 

Not to say that I can just go and do whatever I want because I can't.  I have customers to keep happy and a store to help run, but what a feeling to have a new level of freedom that not too many folks are willing to have, because of the intense hard work you have to do to have this freedom. 

Now, I understand that  this life isn't for everyone.  It's not glamorous and it's not easy. You have to be willing to do a LOT of hard work with little time off, but when its time to relax -- it is the most joyous reward and won't be taken for granted.

We are still working with a strict budget.  Our "paycheck" from our business now covers ALL our expenses.  We are paying a bit more on the principal on our mortgage, saving for an emergency fund, saving for retirement, saving for our son and saving for our next car.  We are doing this -- and right now we are successful.  We keep our eyes to the sky for possibilities, planning, predicting and playing out different scenarios so we continue on a good, dependable, self sufficient and adventurous road. 

I feel like that scene from Cast Away starring Tom Hanks when he finally made a fire and he stands back dancing, wooping and hollering-- "LOOK WHAT I HAVE DONE!  I HAVE MADE FIRE!"  That's us!  Through blood (well, maybe a little blood) sweat (a lot) and tears (A LOT) we have made our own fire! 

Here's to a new level of freedom!  Let the journey continue!!   

                      

While I was away....

Hello All,

Today's post will be all about getting you caught up with what is going on with us.  Today I'll catch you up on my little homestead. 

I'm afraid that really there isn't a lot of news.  My garden did so-so.  I got a few peas, strawberries and blackberries.  I got some garlic and I got a good amount of jalapenos.  I had lots of tomatoes, but bugs got a hold of them before I could.  We have a problem with grasshoppers, so they really took their toll on things.  My lack of time (or scheduling, whichever way you want to see it) didn't help either as they would end up staying on the vine past its prime. I was lucky to have those tomato and jalapeno plants at all.  Luckily one of our customers had extra plants left over from where he worked so he gave some to us.  I was surprised at how well the jalapenos did!  The problem is that we don't eat them very often so we ended up pickling them instead.  We have4 pint jars and we are still working on the first jar! 

 The hops grew pretty well, especially the cascade variety that we let grow on the ground in the garden.  My neighbor Martin even mowed three of them down to the nub once and they still grew back with no complaints.  We're definitely going to need to take some out since we found out we planted them way too close together. They need some sturdier supports this year as well. 

 

 

We enjoyed our summer which went by way too fast.  We did manage to go to the water park once this year, but never made it to the lake. 

 

 

Before we knew it summer was over and it was time to head back to school.  Ashton started middle school this year!  The game changer is now he gets on the bus at, get this.... 6:40 am!!  Holy What!?!  So remember all that BS I had written about getting up an hour earlier so I could clean the house?  YEP, straight out the window! 

 

 

I'm surprised he was awake enough to even eat his breakfast on the first day of school!

 

 

My handsome man heading off to school.  It was a little bit of a rocky start, but now he is having the best year he has ever had.  Next thing you know, it's Halloween and the holidays. 

Ashton has since decided that he doesn't like the drums or band and will not want to continue next year.  I think he'll probably do drama club or chorus. 

 

All the while during these colder months I have gone back to organizing and rethinking my house.  I even had to re-do the monstrous armoire because I tore it up again.  I will do another post soon on the changes I made. 

We did an interview with my grandmother I call Muzzy.  We filmed it.  It was so fun and I learned more about her as a young girl and not just my grandmother.  She turned 92 this year! 

 

 

Now here we are in the middle of February!  We have had a ton of snow this year and record breaking cold temperatures! We are all longing for warm weather!  It's in the 40's today and we are excited.  I will do another post soon to show all the other things we've been up too since I last posted. 

 

Until Next Time Friends!









Not Just Yet.

Hello Again ALL!

Apparently Homemaker Kim isn't finished!  How has everybody been?  I wanted to do a quick post to say that I am going to be blogging here regularly again.  If anything, for me.  I had fun reading my older posts when I was kicking around the idea of blogging again.  It was nice to have a journal of all the things I had tried and experiences I had been through.  The pictures themselves are worth it! 

So here I am again gang.  I truly hope that someone will come along with me that isn't related to me, but if not, I'm cool with that. 

I have so much to catch you up on! 

Until Next Time Friends!