Babies, Babies Everywhere

     I sit here looking at my laptop.  Poor old thing.  Its totally on its last leg and SLOW.  I swore this year I would make my blog great.  ...   ... .......  Herm,  ugh,  Well I haven't taken the time to hone my photoshop skills either to make everything look nice and pretty, but on the other hand I kind of like the real snap shots. I just need to make myself write more!

We are small potatoes, but over the last x amount of years have dabbled in just about anything and everything.  I used to call is flailing now I call it dabbling.  I want to be able to say we have done it all on a small scale and on pennies.  And we are!
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I do better under pressure and when I am super busy.  Its odd but true. 

Well I am busy.


 On Wednesday I took on taking care of a tiny puppy for a friend,

 my prize Nubain gave me quads and shes giving me over 90 ounces a milking!!!! 

 & our barn cat decided my house was a good place to have her kittens...

 I have about 1700 seedlings in my living room, Milk cow needing milking 2x a day, Milk goats, chickens, babies, babies, & babies.  All while Homeschooling and dealing with a teething baby, and my 6 other kids.... chicks in the incubator (review and posts coming soon!)

 Which is all fine and well but Mr Homestead (Hubster) has been gone several nights pushing snow...and is again tonight. It goes from busy to shear madness when hes not here.  But its always fun and interesting.

Oh and did I mention we are about to start feeding sprouts and fodder!!  Have all the supplies and will be blogging our set up and progress!!

One last thing - I also have a STACK of recipes I have been making and need to start posting four you all so check back in often!

Have a recipe you don't want to try- to complicated, to many ingredients, just odd?  More than likely Ill try it- just send it my way and Ill post about it :)

Back In the Saddle again!

I'm Baaaaack!  Can you hear the music....Aerosmith.....

Ok anyway....

Now that we've gotten thru the first of the year I can refocus on my kitchen, garden, and blogging!
Yea! 

Oh and did I happen to mention that I have lost 85 pounds since my last blog post.......  All on my own thank you very much.

Well I had planned this whole baking bread posts but the heating element went out on the oven-- SO
I'll just give you a run down.

We are putting a fairly large garden this year.  I wanted my herb bed to be ridiculously huge but decided to scale back since I'll be doing my soaps this year and have a couple festivals planned.

I have a membership to a seed savers club and get sent 5 packs of random seeds mailed each month.  I also had a $200 order in to Bakers Creek again this year.  They may be a tad higher on the packs but they are in my state and you cannot beat their shipping.

We have always been very happy with Bakerscreek and they are all open pollinated and GMO free.

We got the garden plowed a few times before our snow hit-  between 11 & 12 inches last week. Hubster works for MoDOT so we hardly saw him for nearly a week.  One of the nights he was gone I caught 2 guys seeking around the old farm house on the place - SCARED me to death.  grabbed my gun and hit the back door on a vengeance - scared the pee out of them I think.

 To put it pleasantly I had a very no nonsense approach with an extremely stern tone.......

 

Hubster headed out to get some wood

 

Big things planned - Milk cow calved today!  One of my Nubians should be kidding ANYtime - garden all planned out and seeds sprouting as we speak, Got a new camera and forked out the bucks for Photoshop 11 and 2 books to try and explain it all (we will see how that goes) If I could get my oven fixed this week it may actually be organized around here.

HAHAHA - who am I kidding I SCRUBBBBBED the house down Saturday and you cannot hardly tell today. Between home school, cooking, cleaning, and other everyday tasks its a mad house.  But its my mad house and I run the asylum - wouldn't have it any other way.


Oh and remember Seed giveaway is right around the corner!  Make sure you keep an eye out on our facebook page!

Eggs are coming out of our ears!

  Year before last we bought Turkins (aka necked necks)   We've have had one or two over the years and the kids think that they look funny but have loved them.  So we bought about 40 , straight run, and ended up with about a 50/50 split.  We have eaten several of the roosters- "the meaners" as they are called by my little ones.

We only feed scraps untill dead  of winter then I'll kick out some feed here and there when theres snow on the ground.  I find no point in feeding something is its going to end up costing me $$$$ for a dozen eggs.  They have all gotten along fine but never really laid that well maybe 2-3 eggs a week at best.

Well, just as we started to talk about butchering the hens off and buy replacement chicks this year - BOY HOWDY did they ever start to lay!  Im getting on average 5 eggs a week from these girls!  I've still got my Buff Orphingtons that are 3 years old and am getting 4-5 eggs a week out of them.

My kids are overjoyed that everytime they go outside there is more eggs to get:) 

Hubster isnt thrilled with eggs  but we eat them everyday and I try to cook with them almost every meal.  If I dont use eggs for a day or 2... or 3 then this is what you see when you open the fridge.

Yes these are all ours & yes its about a weeks worth.  I have to say I would so rather be sick of eating eggs than to not have enough!

Im just ready for some homemade butter & cheese!  Feels like forever since weve had a fresh cow or dairy goat! 

I can taste it now...

Giveaway!

Theres still time to enter the giveaway!  AND you can get 10 enteries EVERYDAY just for sharing on FB!

Grand prize is a food sealer worth 100!

Snickerdoodle Bars

So its fall and I cannot bake enough!  I have had the oven going nearly 24/7!  And I have a terriable addiction to Pinterest !!  (Almost as bad as my addiction to pumpkin!)

Any way  I have a husband, Mr, Homestead, who LOVES snickerdoodles but making the same old cookies time and again gets old so....


 Snickerdoodle Bars

2 2/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
whisk together in a small bowl

2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup REAL butter room temp (NOT MELTED!)
2 eggs room temp
1 TBLSPN vanilla
beat till smooth and fluffy!

Combine wet and dry - mix well and spread in a 9 x 13 LIGHTLY greased pan, I think a light spray works best. I have canola in a $1 spray bottle then wipe out the excess.

2 TBLSPNS white sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
mix in small bowl  - sprinkle over top

bake on 350 for 25 - 30 minutes
upon cooling it settles quite a bit :)

I have made this several times - the last time I used country crock "butter" - It did NOT turn out the same - it turned out VERY dense and almost wet all thru - I strongly suggest using real unsalted butter or only using 3/4 cup butter substitute possibly (I havent tried it again with the country crock with decreased butter, just a suggestion!!)

Good link to the giveaway

 Click here ------> GIVEAWAY<--------  for a good link for the giveaway!!

GIVEAWAY!!

To celebrate my 1200 facebook likes I am having a GIVEAWAY!!

It starts TODAY and will go thru my 29th Birthday!!  Y'all have till the 26th of October to enter!!!!

A few of my friends have let me link up their fb pages too to help spread the word!





a Rafflecopter giveaway









good luck to ya!!
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