Becca Blogs

2006-03-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

Here is Mary, playing in the snow. We got 6inches the other day. It was so nice to wake up to a beautiful, white world. You can also get a good glimse of my neighbors behind those trees :( I hate going into the back and seeing their house. Oh well, not much I can do about it. During the spring and summer the underbrush should block out more of it.

I got my tomatoe and pepper seeds today. I got the Heinze sauce and the Oregon slicing ones. I also got jalapeno (sp?) and red pepper seeds. After I'm done writing up this entry I'll go get them started.

I also got my yarn from Knit Picks. If you havn't gotten yarn from them before, go do it! A 110yard (50g) skein of wool costs $1.82. And it is SOOO soft! I got a nice pastel purple for Mary's spring sweater. Here's a link to the pattern http://knitandtonic.typepad.com/knitandtonic/2005/08/draft_7.html . I can't wait till it's done... it'll be very cute :)

Today I visited a fellow homesteader. I was lucky enough to meet her at the Carla Emery lecture last April. You can visit her blog here http://www.homesteadblogger.com/maplegrovefarm/ . We talked about homesteading, cheesemaking, books and tons of other stuff. She also gave me some of her sourdough starter, yea! So, I will attempt to make a sourdough bread :)

I'm off to defrost some steak for dinner and build a fire in the firestove, because I was naughty and spent more time visiting than I had planned and the fire went out ;)

2006-03-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

I started 12 broccolli and 12 cauliflower seeds the other day. Mary helped me with them. It's so wonderful to know that she is learning how to do all this stuff. It's really neat to think that all this is normal to her. All that we do isn't so out of the ordinary, know what I mean? To her, grinding wheat, baking bread, cooking from scratch, gardening, preserving food is all normal. It really warms my heart to know that. I want her to be shocked that people DON'T do that stuff. It's funny to hear her talking about going to the health food co-op, or about opening a jar of green beans to other "city folk". Makes me smile :)

I got the cream all seperated for some butter. I let my butter supply slide. So, I need to get caught up. When I freeze it, I freeze it in 1/2c packages, so it's easier to use for baking and stuff.

I also need to make bread tomorrow. I love making bread. It's one of my all time favorite things to do. I go between making 1 loaf at a time in my bread maker (baking the bread in the oven) and making 2 loaves at a time in my Kitchen Aid. Either way is good.

The neighbors got a couple of goats. I don't mind goats, but they better not get out and get into my garden! Their dog keeps coming over to our house and it's really getting on my nerves. I told them that their dog keeps getting out, and that dh cuts up salmon very frequently, so I didn't want it to get sick. But, obviously they didn't get the hint.

These guys are city people coming out to the country. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind newbie homesteaders. But, when they don't read up on what to do or how to take care of their animals and stuff, that get's my goat (ha ha, rolling eyes). These guys pretty much went into this blind.... which is no way to do it, and it's also very a very dangerous thing to do. It's like they have no common curticy (sp?) for any neighbors around. They just barrel in and out (their driveway goes right by our house), ride 2 wheeler all into the night, don't keep their dog locked up, ect...... GGGRRRRR!!!!! I can just imagine what it's going to be like if/when they get poultry or geese. I just know my garden is going to get ruined.

I can't wait till we move to a more secluded space. This place is off the beaten path, but not nearly enough for my taste. I want to move where I can't see, hear, or smell any neighbors! Enough ranting for the night, lol.

2006-02-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I havn't blogged in a while! Yikes. Like I said before, I'm not a good blogger, lol.

Things with the dog are going great. She is turning out to be an awsome dog. She's great with the kids and is showing some promising signs of being a good hunting dog. And, dh loves her, so all is good ;)

I bought broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and pea seeds the other day. This year, I went with Seeds of Change seeds. Last year I did mostly Territorial Seed Co. I like that Territorial is a local company, but then, I like how Seeds of Change does more heirloom and organic. Anyhoo, I plan on getting my seeds (all but the peas) started this weekend. I think I'll plant the peas mid March. I guess I should start my tomatoes and peppers now too, yikes. I want to get the tomatoes nice and big by the time I move them to the garden. Hopefully that'll move my tomatoe season up a little bit.

I did a count of our canned goods a week or so ago. Lookin' good. I don't know what I'll do with the pickles tho. Nobody (but me) likes them >:( So, maybe I'll give them away or something.

Our neighbors logged their land besides our place :( Now we can see house, which is a total bummer. They have proved themselves to be very annoying neighbors. They ride their 4-wheelers all over the place. And when it snows, they do it late at night.

Well, off to do some dishes, blech.

2006-02-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

The sun has come at last!! We get a whole week with sunshine :) It's 30 degrees outside, but it's not raining!

All this sun has gotten me in the mood to do some garden work, but the ground is way to wet to do anything. I think I'm going to start my tomatoes next month. That's a month and a half earlier than last year. Hopefully this will give them a nice early start, and get some tomatoes earlier in the summer.

I also want to figure out a way to store some potatoes. I think I'll consult my homesteading books for some cold storage options.

The dog is working out great. Tunzing the cat and her seem to get along alright. Lucy knows not to chase Tunzing, or she'll get scratched, lol.

2006-02-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we got a dog. Dh called from work the other day, and said he was bringing home a beagle (from the pound). I wasn't all that thrilled about a beagle. I've heard alot of horror stories about them, especially about how they stink and bark all the time. Well, she does neither :) We named her Lucy and she's about a year old (that's what the dog catcher said). She's an awsome dog tho. We all like her alot. She is totally house trained, kennels up really good, ect... Dh is really getting into the hunting training. I sure hope she does a good job of it!

I just heard on the news yesterday that our area has gotten 50inches of rain in the last month or so. Can you believe that? It's like a flippen rain forest here! Well, I guess we are actually classified as a rainforest in this area, but who's counting, lol. The roads are just awful... all rutted up and a ton of pot holes. They say it's suppossed to clear up after this weekend... I sure hope it does! I want to get outside for a while!

Son is in the Hunter's Safety class now. This is the first step for him to get his hunting liscense. I can tell he's so excited about it. He's grown up with all the important men in his life hunting. So, he sees this as a step into manhood. It's a major stepping block, that's for sure. He turns 12 in a few months, so after that he can get his first hunting license. It'll probably be a bird license or something. Then, this fall he will go out with dh and my dad hunting deer, elk and maybe antalope. I told dh that we'll have to get another freezer if he get's a deer or elk!

2006-01-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

Here's the kids, rolling out dough for noodles, that will be made for chicken noodle soup, yum!

This rain is really getting me down. I know, quit complaining, but sheesh! I need a few days on NON rainny weather to dry out a little bit. We've got wood to split and gardens to cover (both of which should have been done months ago!)

I started a new sweater. It's from www.knitty.com. Forgot the name, but I'll post pics later. The yarn is from another sweater that I started without a pattern. I just didn't like the way it was coming out.

Not to much else going on. Dh is getting anxious to go out and fish. He'll be going out this wednesday, salmon fishing and crabbing. Hopefully he get's some of both. We are almost out of salmon. We have maybe a whole fish left. The elk, deer and pig are staying stocked up nicely. I need to go over my canned goods and see what we've used up so far. I've been trying to think of a way to store potatoes over winter. We are just so wet here, that I'm afraid that they'll all just rot. I'll consult my 2nd all time favorie homesteading book (Carla Emery's being the first) Rodale Press Home Food Systems. Wonderful book. It's out of print, but if you can find it, buy it.

Today I'll be making butter. I make it in my kitchen aid, lol. My mom won't let me use her real churn (darn!), so I figured out a different way of doing it.

I've been thinking alot lately about the way we eat. The more households I visit, I realize how lucky we are. Take the other nights dinner for example. Homemade chili: made with dry beans, home canned tomatoes/sauce, elk meat, onions, local cheese and sour cream, also made from scratch corn bread with home ground flour.

We are lucky enough to get raw milk for $2 a gallon. With that we make a little bit of cheese, butter and soon, yogurt. I was looking at the prices of raw cheese and butter... wow! Plus, our kids eat fresh crabs, clams, salmon, catfish at least once a week. And we also eat wild game or home raised pig the rest of the time. Not to many families can say that!

Bad Blogger

2006-01-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm a bad winter blogger. There isn't anything exciting during the winter to report on, so I just don't blog it, lol. Sorry.

It has been raining for about 30 days straight!! I know, I know... I'm an Oregonian, what should I expect, right? Well, even us "swamp people" get tired of the rain! It's so wet, that even our wood, that is under cover, is wet. It just sucks up the humidity. Grrrr.... The other day we had almost 6 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. Now, that's what you call rain!

2005-12-16T11:18:00.000-08:00

9 days till Christmas!! I can't believe how fast it is going. We are all ready :D I just need to sew up a couple of pj pants for son, and some doll diapers for daughter, then I'll be ALL done.

Not to much else going on. Daughter has been sick the past couple of days. She has a slight bronchial cough and a minor fever. I've been giving her echanacea, some bronchial cough homeopathy, vit C and some motrin.

Daughter asked me for a pb&j sandwich for breakfast and I was making it, I thought... homemade bread, organic/natural pb, and homemade jelly... doesn't get much better than this :D It's SOOO rewarding to feed your family stuff that you made yourself.

Oh, heard on the news yesterday that there have been some ecoli outbreaks from raw milk. I just know that there are going to be a ton of parinoid people going around bad mouthing raw milk. Well, we drink it and will continue to drink it! I am not going to buy milk from those poor cows that are locked up in a concrete barn 24/7 till they die. It's just cruel! I went to an auction last year to look for some pigs, and in the back (waiting to be auctioned off) were some retired dairy cows. OMG! They were skin and bones, open sores all over their bodies and just looked so pittiful. I almost cried for them. And the sad thing is, these cows were probably only about 3ish years old, but because of the abuse and being overworked and over medicated, they are no good to the dairies anymore. Oh, it makes me so mad. How can farmers (if they can call themselves that) sleep at night knowing how they treat those poor girls??

Ok, gotta go knit some frustration out!

2005-12-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

I don't think I mentioned our sausage making experience last time I updated. Well, we did up 10lbs of breakfast sausage. It wen't pretty smoothly. Dh pushed the meat into the stuffer, while I manhandled the casings. At first he tried to twist them into links and kept breaking them... so I did it and didn't burst a single one! Ha!

But, we are having problems with it all untwisting :( So, I think we're going to get the actual "hog" casings. I heard that we should have less problems with them. I hope so, cuz we really want to get into making our own sausage.

I decided to undo the Celtic Cap that I knitted. I've worn it several times and it's just to short. I found a pattern that is shaped to cover the ears and back of the neck, so I think I'll incorperate that into the pattern.

The new www.knitty.com is out. I love alot of their patterns. I think I'm going to do up the bristow. I've been looking for a nice cabled cardi to do for myself.

I'm on my last pair of slippers. Yea!! I'm pretty surprised that I was able to get 3 pairs of adult slippers out of 2 skeins (dark for bottom, corigated for top) of yarn. Now that my school term is over, I broke out the serger and sewing machine and started on the huge pile of fleece socks (we named them house socks). You can see the pattern here http://www.thegreenpepper.com/packs.html they are the polor socks. Awsomely easy pattern... just 3 pieces to sew together. I love this pattern place. They are semi local to me, plus they have tons of outer wear patterns.

Ok, enough for today :D I have work that needs to get done, lol.

Spam

2005-12-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

You know something? I hate spam. Not the psuedo meat product, but annoying, aggravating spam. I go to my blog, to see if anyone posted any remarks. Yea! There's a remark. The remark page opens.... spam. Gggggrrrr!!

It's pretty dang cold here. The high today was about 33deg. Our wood stove is burning like crazy. But, I love it. I love sitting in the house, knowing it's freezing outside, while I'm knitting away.

Well, I'm all done christmas shopping. Well, except for a cookbook for my mom. I saw it at Costco, so I thought when I go xmas shopping I'll get it. I go back... it's gone. I went to a few other bookstores and they don't have it either :( Hopefully I can find it soon, lol.

2005-11-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

We got our first snow today. I was in town (20min from home) when it started falling and I got a huge feeling I needed to get home. That always happens when it snows, lol. I guess it's a good thing, since you need 4 wheel drive to get up our road when it snows or freezes. We only got about a 1/2 inch, but it was gorgeous. I hope it snows a ton tonight! The only bad thing about it is that dh has to drive home in it.

We got our sausage stuffer and casings today. In the next few days we should be doing up some sausage! It's going to be pretty dang cool. I'll take some pics of it to show off ;)

We got our christmas tree all set up. Actually... we did it on Friday, after Thanksgiving, lol. I LOVE LOVE LOVE christmas! I got holiday music going, the tree all lit up and the house all cozy warm :D

I am knitting my 4th pair of slippers right now. I found an awsome slipper pattern http://www.knitaddicted.com/html/40.html They are going to make wonderful christmas gifts :)

Brrr.....

2005-11-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

It's getting colder! It's a whopping 30 deg. F this morning :) I love fall and winter. I also love the cold weather. I love the smell/sounds of our wood stove (our only heat). It's so cozy and warm.

Me and dh spent most of the day tuesday cutting/wrapping the elk. We got 44lbs of summer sausage and pepperoni made. And we will be grinding up 70lbs of elk burger. Our freezer was SO full! Hopefully we can get it all in. I guess having our freezer too full isn't a bad thing, lol.

We ordered a meat grinder attachment for my kitchen aid, it should be coming today, yea! We are also going to try our hand at sausage making. That'll be fun.

On the knitting front, I'm knitting daughter a pair of slippers for school. They like to take off their shoes in the classroom, so I thought I knit her a pair of slippers to keep her tootsies warm. They are pretty cute.

Well, I'm off to knit and clean house... don't know which will come first ;)

Yikes

2005-11-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize how long it has been since I blogged last! Well, this'll be short, sorry. We're doing good, just busy. Dh got an elk yesterday, so we will be cutting that up tomorrow. Not much else going on. I'll blog more after dh goes back to work ;)

2005-10-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

I'm posting a few pictures of what I've finished on the knitting front. I wish I could post them all on one post, but I can't :( Here is the famous Celtic Cap. I love this hat! Partly because I've worked so hard on it (and previous tries) and because it's so beautiful. I've just been staring at the pattern for almost a year being afraid of it, lol. It's knitted out of Merino wool from Knit Picks.

2005-10-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

My first pair of gloves. Knitted from Fishermans Wool and dyed with Kool Aid. Came out pretty good for a first try. Made a few mistakes, but they're still functional.

2005-10-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a sweater that I designed. I think it came out great! This is for daughter. I think I like knitting for her because she's so small (4T) and it doesn't take long to whip something out :D

2005-10-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Yea! I finished the Celtic Cap. It looks awsome... but I do wish it was a bit longer to cover my ears all the way. Oh well. Looks and feels good. I knitted it out of merino wool from Knit Pics. They have awsome yarn for very low prices. A skein (50g) of merino wool is $2.29. And it's VERY soft. Even their Wool of the Andes, at $1.79 a 50g skein, is very soft. I'm definatly going to order from them again, and soon :)

So, for our fall/winter knitted gear, I have all the hats done, now I just need to finish the gloves. I need to start posting pics too.

Our tomatoes are still rippening. I've gotten 40 pints of sauce so far. I'll get maybe 50 pints this year. I don't think that'll be enough for the whole year, but it's a good dent!

Dh's fishing has been unsuccessful. He said there are tons of salmon in the rivers, but they aren't biting. He said no one else is getting any, so it's not just him, lol. It's a good thing that son got 2 nice sized ones!

Dh also got a deer. We got it cut up and wrapped and smoked jerkey. Hopefully he can get an elk too. Our pig is at the butcher's... so our freezer will be plenty full this year!

Very sad news

2005-10-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

I just learned that my friend, Carla Emery has passed away today. I had the awsome opportunity to meet and host her for 2 years while she lectured in our area. Her and her husband, Don, were such neat people.

This is a huge loss to the homesteading community. She was/is a legend. Her calling on earth was to lead people to a better way of life, and she did that very well. This is sad news for sure.

2005-10-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well, this is posted here, cuz I needed somewhere to host this picture, lol. This is SUPPOSED to be the Celtic Cap by www.girlfromauntie.com... but it turned out way wonky :(

2005-09-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

What the.... I thought for sure I would come out to be wool.... Hm.

You are Dishcloth Cotton.You are a very hard worker, most at home when
you're at home. You are thrifty and seemingly
born to clean. You are considered to be a Plain
Jane, but you are too practical to notice.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizzila

2005-09-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here is son's 25lb chinook salmon he caught the other day with husband. He fought that guy in all by himself! We made fish sticks out of it last night, yum. This is son's 2nd chinook salmon in a month!

2005-09-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

We are not so patiantly waiting for the tomatoes to ripen. I'm starting to get REAL worried about them. I wouldn't by so worried if we didn't depend on our garden produce for our yearly groceries.... I guess that's what it's all about.... sigh.

I start school on monday, yuck. I'm real tired of going to school. But, this term I get an easy class, Medical Terminology 120 :) I get to take 3 courses :) Yea.

Husband is getting ready to leave on a 2 week long hunting trip. He's going over to eastern oregon with my dad to hunt deer this year. This is his first year hunting over there, and he's kind of worried about it. Because, if he hunts here, he's pretty much garanteed a deer here, but over there he's not. My dad says they'll both get one.... I hope he's right! We need the meat. We used the last of our deer a few weeks ago. Our pig isn't going to be ready for another couple of weeks, so we're eating lot's of fish and chicken, lol.

2005-09-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the sound of the pressure canner. A wonderful sound :) We put up about 50 jars of corn yesterday and today. I told husband yesterday that I felt like a chipmunk, lol. It is so wonderful to see the shelves filling up with canned food from your own garden :D

I "greenhoused" my tomatoes. I put a sheet of plastic over the whole thing, so hopefully they will ripen a bit faster. It's starting to get into the low 40's at night, and they look a little wilty in the morning. I can't wait for them to get ripe!!!

Now, I need to search for more pint canning jars. I used up all but 1 dozen already, and I still need to do green beans, tomatoes, peaches and applesauce.

My knitting is coming along nicely. I ripped out a hat 4 times and started a new pattern. I just couldn't get it right. This hat was supposed to be the Celtic Cap, but I couldn't get the cables to turn out right :( I took a picture, so I'm going to email them to the pattern writer and see what she says I did wrong.

2005-09-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

Not much new happening here. Daughter started soccer. That was pretty hard for her at first. She cried the first couple of practices, but is having fun now. She had her first game today. She's the smallest one out there, lol. Poor thing.

School started for the kids. I was SOOOO excited for school to start, lol! It's SO nice having the house quiet during the day. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids to death, but they drive me nuts!

Son caught his first chinook salmon last week. He was so excited. He got up the next morning and called everyone he knew to tell them about it. I'll post a pic next blog.

Our will be ready to harvest in a couple of days. It'll sure be nice to start canning our produce. I'm tired of waiting for it to ripen. The tomatoes are slowly starting to turn yellow and orange. I hope they hurry up, cuz by the end of september it will be freezing at night.

Oh, I knitted my first pair of gloves! I was so excited! Gloves have been something that scared me off for a long time. But, I finally sucked it up and knit a pair. Now I need to order a whole bunch of wool for the rest of the family. I'm ordering it from knit pics. They have some wonderful yarn at REALLY low prices. The lowest I've ever seen.

Ok, enough for today. I'm off to knit on my wool cabled hat :)

Is it autumn yet?

2005-08-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, it feels like fall! I can't wait. Fall is my all time favorite time of year. I feel all cozy, and I want to bake and knit all day long, lol.

I have been going through my knitting patterns and getting my yarn list worked out. I need to get a whole bunch of wool. I'm going to be knitting up some mittens, hats and felted slippers. I also want to brave this hat http://www.girlfromauntie.com/patterns/shop/celticcap/detail.php I can do intermediate cables right now, but I havn't worked from a chart yet. I'm kind of scared, but I know I can do it.

I also need to work on my cardigan that I started last winter. I'm 3/4ths of the way finished with the body and need to do the sleeves still. I REALLY hate doing sleeves. It's an awsome sweater tho. I designed it myself. There is braided cabling down both sides of the front and down each sleeve. I'll take a picture soon and post it here.

On the gardening front.... the corn isn't ripe yet. The tomatoes are taking their sweet time too. I'm starting to get a little worried about them. They are our main staple from the garden, so I would hate to have them not do good. With gas prices nearing $3 a gallon, I know food is going to skyrocket in the stores. I would like to NOT depend of supermarkets for our main food supply. We're working on it :)

2005-08-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Here is dd and our corn again. Ignore the weeds at the bottom, lol. Dh is convinced that it helps the corn, so he won't weed it... sigh. I can't believe summer is coming to a close. We only have about 3-4 weeks left of this nice sunny weather. Autumn is my favorite season of all time, so I'll be alright. :)

2005-08-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here is my tomato cage. It's not pretty, but it works. We had to rig up something real fast before the deer got to it again. In the past they would come during the night, but now they come all during the day. They're pretty, but they can reak havack on your garden!

And we're off!

2005-08-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

The start of canning season has arrived (for me at least). I did up a batch of pickles and canned my kraut.

I was too chicken to taste the kraut, and I couldn't get the kids to taste it either, so my mom became the guinne pig, lol. It was good! Not overly sour, but a nice mild flavor. And it was nice and crisp too, yum! Here is where I got the recipe to make it http://www.kountrylife.com/content/rec21.htm . She says to let it set for 3 days on the counter to ferment, but I had to let it set for 9 days. Maybe cuz our house was cooler? I'm going to do up another batch today :)

We entered our county fair stuff yesterday. I entered 2 loaves of bread. 1 was for a special catagory hosted by a local grain mill. Last year I entered a loaf and got 1st place, but because I forgot to include my reciept for the flour I got bumped down to 2nd! This year I made sure I added the reciept!

I also entered a cabbage head, son entered some cookies and is showing his rabbit in 4-H, and daughter entered in some carrots (her first year!).

2005-08-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of my dd Mary. This is one of the cabbages we made into kraut. The corn behind her has at least doubled since taking this picture, a week ago! Mary is holding Tunzing (doesn't she look happy?, lol)

New beginnings

2005-08-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, if anyone knows how to put my info pic my "about me" section, let me know! I have been trying for days to show up over there! >:( It's driving me nutsiod.

I found a kraut grater for $10 the other day. I grated up 2 heads, which made 4 quarts and 1 pint of kraut. I used a recipe where you let it ferment right in the canning jars. They are on day 5 of fermenting. I havn't noticed any smell yet, so that's good.... or maybe it's bad? I'll open a jar tomorrow and see where it's at.

Our garden is doing SO good! There are tons of blossoms on the tomatoe plants. I can't wait for them to get ripe. And the corn is starting to tassle out and get some cobs. We have been eating zuccinni almost every night. We're not tired of em yet, lol. I just saute in a tiny bit of olive oil and sprinkle on some salt and pepper.

Me and hubby went out on a "date" today. We went to the coast and fished and crabbed. We got 5 dungounous (sp?) crabs. YUM! There were actually tons of crabs in the pots, but most were females, and we can't keep those. We got a lot of hering too. Hubby uses those for salmon bait.

Hmmm... what else. Me & hubby's 10 year class reunion is on the 14th. (me and hubby were high school sweethearts, aaawwww, lol). I'm kind of nervous. I havn't seen most of them for 10 years. Our class was a whopping 12 graduates, lol. Our town is a small logging town.

Well, I'm off to throw some laundry in to wash and clean up the kitchen before bed :)