Chapter Nine: Was So Fine

“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.”

Well, we thought we would get through the winter without any significant sickness, but the flu hit us hard this week.  I (Rebecca) am currently the only one that has not gotten sick.  The kids started dropping like flies starting last Monday and it is currently Sunday.  By Wednesday, all nine kids were sick with fevers ranging from 99.1 to 104.5.  After a few trips to the walk-in clinic we did confirm that it is, in fact, the flu.  Influenza B to be more accurate.  So, I have been doing what any hippie mama would do- pushing the herbal tinctures, vitamin C by the handful, smothering them with chest rub (that I make!), drinking lots and LOTS of hot herbal tea with our honey in it, and dreaming about warmer days when I can kick them all back outside again.  They have watched more cartoons than I care to admit at this point, and I can’t really fault them for that when they are so sick and miserable right now.

Chapter Eight: A New Direction and an Update

This last year has had a lot of excitement.  Last summer, Keith’s job took him to North Dakota to help out in the cleanup for a very large train derailment.  The train derailed early May and he didn’t come home again until almost June.  After that, he was home for a week and gone for a week.  We did go to the farmer’s market regularly, but because of the amount of time that Keith was spending gone, the things we wanted to do on the farm and just the regular maintenance kept falling further and further behind.  The majority of the workload ended up falling to myself, but between trying to keep up with our seven kids, the farmers market, and the farm I just could not keep up.  I let the garden go for the most part.  We still got things like potatoes, tomatoes, some beets, carrots, and turnips, but the large scaled we had planned out the previous winter just did not happen. 

Chapter Seven: Farm and Circumstance

This is just me talking, because I tend to do that from time to time…  you know, ramble.  And that’s okay.  The internet has given people like me a voice that may not have had a voice otherwise (thank you, Internet!) which if you think about it…  (this is where you think about it) could be considered a BIG responsibility.  I mean, if we ALL have the possibility of having a voice, we should be very careful about what we say, and we should honestly mean the things we DO say.  In saying that, here is my honest to goodness pledge (right hand raised) to be genuine at all times.  

Preserving Tomatoes

Today I finished processing a bunch of tomatoes, and although it was a bit of work, it felt very good being able to put my quarts of tomatoes onto my pantry shelf.  My family goes through a lot of tomato products.  We eat pizza, we eat spaghetti, we eat lasagna.  We like tomatoes on our tacos, we like tomatoes on our salads, we like tomatoes in our soup.  My kids would eat ketchup on pretty much anything.  They even dip their carrots into it. With all these tomato based foods, how do you decide how much to make of pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce to last you?  Simple, you don't. 

Pizza Crust recipe

We eat a lot of pizza.  What true American family does not?  But we can easily drop $30 to $40 on a pizza night.  In efforts to keep things simple, cheap, and still be able to eat high quality foods (because Papa Johns is considered high quality, dontchyaknow?) I started just making it like pretty much everything else we eat in this house now.  Oh, and check it out...  I already had all the basic ingredients.  So, shhh- I am about to spill a family secret.

Sweet Cinnamon Walnut Bread recipe

We love, love, love, LOVE sweet bread at our house!  Particularly when they are fresh out of the oven on a cold snowy day.  MM-mmm...  Did I mention how much we love it?  I have been putting up pictures on our Facebook page, and people have asked for the recipe, so here I am to deliver the good news!  I'm giving you the recipe.

Hot Cocoa Mix recipe

What is better in the winter than a hot cup of cocoa on a cold snowy day?  At our house, our kids LOVE hot cocoa.  And the stuff in the box is...  well... eh...  it's missing something.  Try to give it a lift by adding a few simple ingredients to it.

Dark German Rye Bread recipe

Around here we have a lot of people from German descent, my husband's family included. So dark breads, like this next one are pretty up there on the list of YUMMY things to eat.  Just as a word of advice- don't give your kids a spoon of molasses and tell them it is syrup.  They won't appreciate it as much as you will.  

Multigrain Bread recipe with variations

There is just NOTHING better in this world than hot, fresh out of the oven, homemade bread.  Oh, oh, oh---  I make a LOT of bread.  Between trying to keep up with eight mouths to feed, and making a whole lot more than that for the Farmers' Market, I make a ton of bread.  My family's favorite (or should I say one of them, they aren't picky) is Milk and Honey Multigrain bread.  I've made this SO MANY times, that I do not even have to look at the recipe anymore.  I have had quite a few people ask me for the recipe, so here it is!

Planning for Your Pantry

I’ve been asked by several people to write about how I figured out how much to preserve for our family for one year.  Or two years, or however many years you are trying to preserve for.  Personally, our ultimate goat goal here is to grow and preserve enough to last two years.  That way, if we have a bumper crop one year and a dud the next, it won’t be as big of a deal because we worked ahead to make up for a crop failure. 

Chapter Six: Rolling with the Punches

It is already fall here.  Where did summer go?  Summer lasted like all of three days.  And let me tell you something…  I was sucking for those three days without air conditioning.  People in Minnesota, apparently do not use a lot of AC.  Which makes you kind of wonder, how DID people survive before freon!  It was 90 degrees inside our house on those days.  But it lasted only three days or so.  That may be a bit of an exaggeration.   It may have been a week.  I have heard some people complaining of the short summer and as far as I am concerned- GOOD RIDDANCE!  After having spent the majority of my life in an ALMOST perpetual summer-like state that exists without real fall, winter, or spring…  I was not sorry that it did not stop for supper.  Ask me my opinion next year.  Although, I am not sure it will change.
 

Chapter Five: Home Again

The fun just never stops here.  We are currently in the final days of the building project.  Our house is ALMOST finished.  The floor is finished, carpet-wood-the whole nine yards…  Trim-done, doors-done, appliances-done.  We have even bought the closet poles and a few shelves for places like the pantry.  Those have to be put together, but easy enough, I say!

About the only thing that is left to do is the siding outside, which has been totally weather dependent, and the counter tops inside, which we are still waiting on to arrive.  Oh, and tile a shower- no big deal!  Other than that- DONE, SON! 

Chapter Four: The LONG Winter

“Let’s move to Minnesota” Keith said.

“Don’t worry, it will be fine” Keith said.

“Oh, it barely ever snows anymore” Keith said.

Apparently, we are having an unusually long winter, even for Minnesota standards right now.  When you hear the meteorologist on the radio say the ten day forecast with a sigh of exasperation…  you know it is serious and even the weather man is feeling the strain. 

I. AM. SO. TIRED. OF. SNOW.

Chapter Three: When South meets North

When Keith and I first met, there were some obvious points we had to work through before it became apparent that our relationship might work out.  One of the biggest problems was honestly the whole north versus south thing.  He was from a small town in northern Minnesota, and I was from a small town on the southern Mississippi/Louisiana state line.  We were both in the Army stationed in Colorado, and I was pretty set on returning home after my time in the Army was up.  He had some reservations about living in Louisiana.  Why wouldn’t anyone want to live in the great state of Louisiana in the heart of Cajun culture???  The food, the music, the ambiance???!!!  I really missed home and as much as I loved the Colorado mountains and seeing other parts of the world…  it was just not N’Awlins. 

Chapter Two: Heading North

We quickly realized after we started packing that maybe we have severely underestimated the amount of things that we had.  It didn’t seem like so much when it was packed into all those nooks and crannies.  Now that we were being forced to pull it all out…  well, it became almost embarrassing as to how much stuff we had.  I’d always hated the materialistic side of American life that focused on name brands and fancy items and while we didn’t have very much of that at all, we did have a lot of the stuff that I liked to refer to as “purposeful.”  Can’t leave the apple peeler behind!  Or all the canning equipment and jars that I’d stocked up on several years back!  We had to have had at least 10 dozen empty jars that we’d collected in anticipation for the hot bath.  Because…  you know…  mason jars are absolutely essential to a homesteader! 

Chapter One: It started with a Homebirth

I knew (obviously) that December would be a busy month.  I knew that if everything went as planned, that I would have our sixth baby and then hopefully move just a few weeks later all the way from South Carolina to northern Minnesota shortly after Christmas. 

December 10^th was the first milestone.  I wasn’t technically due(ish) until the 17^th, but I figured number six would come at least a bit early.  Besides…  number five had been born early.  Our other son’s (we were about to have our second son) birthday was the tenth and I had thought that it would be cool to have the baby on that day.  Remy, who was about to turn four, also considered it to be a cool possibility.  I am not entirely sure if he would have thought it was near as awesome when he was fifteen…  but it didn’t matter, because the tenth came and went with nothing.

Loaf Bread and Spice Blueberry and Peach Jam recipes

Another bread blog has been LONG in the making.  I have purchased my last loaf of bread from the grocery store, and I am making it from here on out.  Why?  BECAUSE IT IS SO EASY!!!  Plus, it tastes better.  And it is cheaper.  What could be better than that?  Nothing.  Repeat after me.  Nothing.

Oh, and did I mention it is best with spice blueberry and peach jam?  Homemade, of course.

Sweet Cinnamon Sugar Braids

This week was the last week for the Farmers Market in my area.  It is kind of a sad moment, because I have been going to this particular market since 2008 and have not missed very many Tuesday afternoons.  I knew the names of the people we bought from and they knew us.  We always saw the same people.  We knew the honey lady, the milk lady, the bread lady, the soap lady, and the produce lady.  I would consider them my friends.  And this past Tuesday was the last one before we move, so we all went to say “good-bye.” 

While we were there, we bought a couple of sweet bread braids.  One was cinnamon and sugar and the other was cream cheese.  They were so good!  And it got me thinking…  Man, I sure am going to miss this.  As soon as we got home, I set out to learn how to make my own. 

Walnut Surprise Cookies Recipe

Several years ago, I found the most fantastic recipe, but I didn’t write it down… and I haven’t seen it since.  UNTIL, a few weeks ago… I was standing in the checkout line at Kohls. They always have a shelf of books for sale at the registers that are only $5 each for fundraiser.  My oldest daughter was with me, and she picks up this book with Christmas cookie recipes.  She says “Mom, can we get this book?”  And by default, I said “No.”  But I look through it anyways.  Low and behold, there are the cookies!  Well, close enough, anyways.  We ended up getting the book.  I changed the recipe a bit, but I think you will enjoy the results!  I know we already are!

DIY Flannel and Fleece Baby Blanket/ Lap Throw (Simple Sewing Blogs)

I started making baby blankets awhile back for several reasons.  The ones at the stores were expensive for the nice, thick, warm ones...  And sometimes they still were not big enough for me.  So, I started making my own awhile back, because I just could not justify anymore paying $18- $40 a baby blanket that would probably get spit up on and pooped on anyways.  You can also use these instructions, but get a more "grown up" material and have a fantastic lap throw.  Besides, homemade is always better.  And it is always custom made.