Cherries and Such...

 

 

One of the things we were most excited about on our new property was the fruit trees. We love fresh-picked apples. There are 9 trees on the property that we have been studying. We thought that 6 of them were apple trees and 3 were cherry trees.  Come to find out, 6 of them are cherry and 3 are plum.  We are not sure if the plums are ornamental or edible at this point and all but one of the cherry trees lost their cherries.  Below is the one cherry tree that still has cherries on it.  Now we have to figure out when to pick them.  They are a bit bitter, but maybe they are supposed to be that way and we just need to add sugar.  Anyhow, the next few weeks I will be researching cherry trees and cherry recipes!  I will try to post the recipes and take pictures if it turns out well.  We took several pictures so someone else might not make the same mistake we did in identifying trees.  It is possible that we could have saved cherries had we known earlier.  Live it, learn it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yummy Homemade Ice Ceam

 Yesterday was Father's Day!  One of the items we bought my husband was an ice cream maker.  We had a lot of difficulty finding a wooden one.  Everything is made of plastic these days.  We did finally find a wooden one.  It is electric not hand crank, but the ice cream was just as yummy!  One of my fondest memories of my grandfather was him making homemade ice cream.  (I still have his old machine, but it is not usuable any more)  Grandpa would add peaches or strawberries from the garden. My brother and I would take turns cranking the handle of that old ice cream maker.  Grandpa would use fresh ingredients.  We took a short cut and bought some ice cream mix.  We used vanilla and then added a little bit of our own vanilla and fresh strawberries.  It tasted just like Grandpa's used to taste.  The really great thing is that this ice cream was ready in 30 - 40 min.  We started the machine right before we sat down to eat and by the time we were done eating, the ice cream was close to being done. 

 

 I wish I could say these strawberries are from my garden, but that would be a lie.  Next year I will plant strawberries, but for this year, we used store bought. 

Delicious homemade strawberry ice cream!

Homeade Laundry Soap

 There is something about living on land that makes me want to go a little pioneer.  Not that the pioneers had these ingredients, but they were self-sufficient.  One of our goals in moving out to the country was to become more self-sufficient.  We want to grow our own fruits and vegetables.  Learn about canning.  Raise chickens for eggs and food. Make more homemade foods.  I also want to reduce our bills.  We plan on installing a wood-burning unit to heat our home with wood.  We are trying to buy bulk, and my husband and I figured out that we can car pool when school starts back in the fall!  This will save us a ton of money.  Another great way to save money is homemade laundry detergent.  I was so tired of paying $15.00 - $20.00 for laundry detergent.  I found a recipe for homemade laundry detergent, and I modified it a bit.  The original recipe called for more ingredients and less of the washing soap and borax.  I found that I could make an excellent laundry detergent using just three ingredients and by adding1 1/2 times the amount of the washing soap and Borax.  All you need is 1 1/2 cups of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and 1 1/2 cups of Borax along with one bar shredded of Fels-Naptha.  All of these ingredients can be found in the laundry aisle at the grocery store.  They are very inexpensive and last a long time.  The first 5 times I made this recipe I grated the soap by hand.  My honey finally set me up with the Kitchen Aid mixer and this fancy little attachment.  So, what was taking me an hour to do, now takes about 5 min.  I am in heaven! 

Grate the bar of Fels-Naptha and mix it in with the other two ingredients. 

 

You can store in a ziplock baggy or be fancy and store in a glass jar!  It is super easy.  I use three little scoops with the scoop at the bottom of the picture for each large load of laundry.  I never have to use fabric softener and our clothes are clean and fresh smelling!  Enjoy!

The Chicks Have Arrived!

Here a cheep! There a cheep! Everywhere a cheep, cheep!


These are the sounds filling our building.

At 6:00 this morning, we received a phone call from the Post Office. Our chicks had arrived! My dad went to pick them up and brought them home.


Earlier, my dad had built an 8 x 8 x 2 enclosure for the chicks.  They have to have food, water, a lamp and a fan. 

We also discovered that the bedding had to be covered for a few days or they will eat it and die!  Imagine my mother's surprise when she saw all of her good bath towels and some pretty rooster hand towels in the enclosure.  Can you say, chicken poop?  Oh, what we do for the love of chicks! 

The chicks will be kept in the enclosure for six weeks.  During that time, we will work to make a wooden tool shed into a chicken coop with roosts and hen boxes for laying eggs.  The chicks should be laying eggs by September!  Wahoo!  Keep watching as we chronicle the transformation of the tool shed to a chicken coop!  Should be fun and exciting! 

Moving day and beyond...

We moved on Wednesday, today is Sunday, and I am more exhausted than I have ever been!!!  The movers showed up at around 12:30 and we finally dropped into bed at 10:40. The first night was interesting...very humid in the house and the dogs whined all night.  I seriously felt like I was sleeping between wet blankets.  Note to self, fix moisture problem.   This is probably because we sleep over a crawl space that has water in it.  We need to install a sump pump.  It is on the to do list.

Day two, I had to go to work and all I could think about was all the boxes sitting around my house.  Our Jack Russell ended up sleeping with us.  She crawled under the covers and did not emerge until morning.  The humidity was a bit better since the doors had not been open all day like they were for moving day.
  Here is our little whiner!

Day three, sleep, sweet sleep!  I still had to go to work though.  We also woke up to torrential down pours.  My husband called me three times on the way to work and said to wait two hours before coming in because the roads were flooded.  We ended up with water in the basement.  We need to clean the gutters, put in a sump pump and put in french drains around the house.  Fun stuff, I know!

This is the crawl space that needs insulations, a water barrier and a sump pump.

The following pics are our boxes throughout the house.  Now I know this doesn't look like much, but we also have a 48 x 40 building full of boxes.  We are going to have to come up with some serious storage solutions. 

 

One storage solution we had to come up with was clothing!

 

 

We went from a walk in closet four times the size of our current closet in picture one above.  My lovely daughter built this beauty by herself as temporary storage for winter clothing until we can get an armoire.  Which will be challenging because where we need to put it has low ceilings. 

That is all for today.  I have to get up extra early in the morning now that I live out in the country!  I love it though!  We are blessed!!!