Canning, Canning and More Canning!!

Yesterday was a busy day on the Small Homestead. Hubby found himself at home and made good use of his time building on our chicken house. At the rate these little Australorps are growing, they are going to need larger accommodations in the very near future!!

Just the beginning of a beautiful home for our hens!

I helped him hang a few pieces of siding, but my time was spent in the kitchen!! I needed to wrap up what I call odds and ends in canning...you know, a few jars of this and a few jars of that.

On Friday I had made a beef roast in the crockpot for supper and typically I will make noodles with the broth or I will bless our dog babies with broth over their dog food. I then had a brilliant ( I thought) idea!! Why not can that broth to use in soups this winter! So that's just what I did.

I had already strained the broth Friday evening so on Monday all I had to do was take it out of the fridge and skim the fat off the top. I prepared my jars, rings and tips and poured up the broth. I ended up with four pints and since my canner needs at least eight pints to work properly, I also canned four pints of water....which I used in my dishwater later---no wasting here!!

Hubby had also pulled our tomato plants up and I had several green tomatoes so I decided to make pickled green tomatoes. The recipe tells me I will need to wait four weeks to give them a taste....

Then the dessert of the day...I had some apples and made twelve half pints of Apple Cinnamon Jam!!! Oh my gosh is that stuff wonderful!! A plate of hot, homemade biscuits is certainly in our future!!

It was an exhausting day. Homestead living is not for the lazy or faint at heart for certain! It is so very rewarding though. It is a pure blessing to look at the shelves of food that God has provided for us and I admit I get a warm fuzzy when I see the labor my hands has done in order to provide for my family.

In the coming posts I will share a few of the recipes and the canning procedures that I follow. It's important to do that canning safely!!!

Make sure to leave a comment and chat a while!! We love to hear from you here on the Small Homestead!

Progress!

Cooler temperatures have sure been a welcome site around the Small Homestead. We are enjoying coffee on the front porch in the early morning before the day begins.We are enjoying supper on the porch in the evening as the day winds down. In the middle of the day that same porch finds me breaking beans while listening to Biblical or homesteading podcasts in the background. So very, very peaceful.

The compost pile is complete and filling up and the rabbit hutch is complete with occupants! Let me introduce Shiloh, Timothy and Sarah!! Sarah was our first addition and the oldest of the rabbits, while Shiloh and Timothy are still very much babies and in need of a tender touch....they aren't very people friendly yet!!

(I owe you a better close up of the rabbit family!)

Our chicken babies are growing like crazy!! I read it but just didn't comprehend how quickly Black Australorps grow!!

In this picture they are 12 days old and napping quite peacefully. While they are not totally sure they can trust us giants, they are great entertainment running and jumping and acting fearless---that is until us giants come around... :-)

I have to admit, I've missed this. There was a time when I was firm that once the animals we had went home to the great beyond I was done!!
 No. More. Critters.
 And I meant it! But the desire to slow down, to live more naturally, to go back to simple pleasures is what I truly desire.

Leave a comment and chat a while, then come back and visit with me!! We love company here at the Small Homestead!!

New Homestead--New Life

This is not our first trip to the world of homesteading. We tried many years ago...when the kids were small....when we had mountains of debt...when hubby had to work a full time job and then some.....when we were not focused, not on the same page, not working as a team.

We had chickens and turkeys. Rabbits and milk goats. A bull and large gardens. All did very well, but in the end......we failed miserably.

Go forward about 15 years. The kids are grown, married and on their own. We are debt free!!! Hubby is in business for himself so we are able to manage his working away from the homestead hours around homestead necessity.

But we ARE starting over.....

A visit back to the Amish community we lived in for a time reminded us just how much we missed the slower paced, back to basics life. When we tell folks we are beginning our homestead the first thing they say is, "Oh!! You're prepping!!" Well, no...we are not prepping the way that the world today views it. We are not stocking up to wait on an economic collapse or who knows what, although, in our opinion, being prepared is a VERY good thing!!! We are changing our lifestyle. We have decided that we have been commercialized and materialized to beyond the max and all we see is chaos. At 50 years old, both of us are beyond chaos and drama...

In a month we have constructed a compost bin, a cage for our chicks that will arrive one day this week, and we are preparing for our fall garden.

I have spent a very busy summer canning and dehydrating veggies, and while I'd love to double this next year, I'm very pleased with what is sitting on those shelves today!!

So, Small Homestead Living is live, running and blog posts will be increasing!!!

Share your thoughts but keep it nice, even if you disagree with us or what we're doing...because you see, drama is draining and has no place on the homestead!

With Every New Thing Comes Change!!

Life is all about changes. Our circumstances can change very quickly or slowly progress over time. One thing is certain though....change DOES happen!! And change isn't always a bad thing!!

Over the next few weeks One Single Minute will be undergoing a pretty dramatic change. First of all, regular posts after a four year hiatus will be happening. I will still be talking about being a godly wife, saving money, yummy recipes and the like, but I will always be posting about our life change.....becoming more self-sufficient---Homesteading!!

We are so excited to begin this new chapter in our lives and we want to share what we know, our successes and failures with you!!...and hopefully we can encourage you to become a bit more self-sufficient whether you live in the middle of a big city or in the middle of a vast plain or mountainous region.

So hang on!! It might get really strange around here for a short time but good things are coming your way!!

God's blessings!!!
Deb

It's All In How You Look At It

Typically I'm not a complainer. I don't like people who complain and whine all the time, so I tend to move away from that as much as possible. Every now and then though I run into events, like the ones of this week, and the urge to whine and complain leap into overdrive.

But fortunately it was just that: an urge. Awww, maybe for a couple of seconds I may have muttered or said, "You've GOT to be kidding", but it was just for a couple of seconds..and that's really good.

It began Sunday night when I texted Beth and told her that Monday,  instead of going to buy groceries in Cullman..( You mean you haven't tried Aldi's??? You have NO idea what you're missing!! But that's another post..), we would just stay in Jasper. Did I come to that decision out of the blue? Depends on how you look at it. Possibly, but for me, Holy Spirit dropped that in my spirit and that was that....until Monday morning.

When I got up Monday morning, I had changed my mind and decided,"You know what?? Let's just go on to Cullman. I can get such better deals there!" ...you see...I'm one of God's more stubborn daughters. About 30 minutes later Beth calls in a panic.Can't get the lock to open on Sally's kennel! Been workin' on it 20 minutes no! So next door I go...complete in my orange/yellow gown, stained white robe and bright pink Crocs...You should have seen me!!!....on the other hand it really is better you didn't... Just a few minutes, a few prayers and Sally was a free pup! "Hey Beth, by the way, I think we can still make it to Cullman!"

Back at home I'm primping and pruning....cause no one in town could have handled my earlier beauty...and the phone rings...."Deb, can you bring some electrical wire to the job site? It's in my shop." "Yes, dear. Be there in about an hour."....The fight has ended, we're staying in Jasper.

I notice on my way to the site that the air in my car just isn't putting out cold and so I know something was up. I found out how much something was up when I pulled in at the site. Antifreeze and steam going everywhere!!! Oh what a mess is the death of a radiator........

AH....so that's why God didn't want me driving to Cullman....He knew I was going to have car trouble. He knew I'd be stranded on the side of the road. And even when I still tried to do my own thing, He loved me enough to put obstacles in my way and then allowed me to be stranded in a safe place...with my husband!!!

He is so good to me.

Then last night.....it was cool and a breeze was blowing in the window. I was snuggled under my blankies and snoozing away when off in the distance I hear a noise. Strange noise. Unfamiliar noise. I peek through one eye enough to notice it is 3:30 in the morning...but what is that noise?????? Then I recognize it. I'd heard it once before many, many years ago.....I jumped out of my bed, ran...well staggered crazily...to the kitchen, flipped on the light, whipped open the cabinet door and reached for the water shut off. What happened? The water supply line to my dishwasher had burst and water was going everywhere!! More specifically...all over my newly remodeled kitchen!!!!!!! Water's off. Grab towels. Hubby staggers in...bless him...He reaches toward the dishwasher and I say, "Don't worry about it, we'll get it tomorrow."

As  I lay back in bed, I couldn't help but be thankful. Thankful that my floor and cabinets are soaked and we have another repair to do? No. Thankful that God loved me enough to let this happen in the middle of the night, when we were home and could quickly turn the water off. Just imagine if it had happened earlier in the day when I ran to Jasper! Or earlier in the evening when we were at church! We would have had a way bigger problem then a few wet cabinets and flooring!!!

He loves me!!!! He loves you!!  Could God have prevented the problems? Sure. He's way bigger than a radiator and a water pipe, but we live in this world doing this thing called life and it comes with it's fair share of problems and struggles. However, God is right there with us all of the time if we'll just recognize Him, and when we do, we truly are able to realize that as bad as it is...it could have been so much worse had He not had His hand over His children...

Coming Back

I've always enjoyed writing. I was an avid blogger before I went back to work four years ago but as time goes by certain things fall by the wayside and my writing was one of those things.

I've done a lot of praying and thinking and I have decided, with the prompting of Holy Spirit, to pick this keyboard up again and write once more. I'm certain that my writing, post job will be VERY different than my writing, pre job...mainly because I'm a different woman today than I was four years ago...thank God!! What a shame if I would still be now where I was then!!

So.....I'm back!!! Good thing? Bad thing? You decide. If you enjoy this, then thank you very much. If you don't then feel free to move on. I won't be offended because this is my world and it is very much a work in progress.

I'll post as God prompts and time allows because as much as I enjoy writing about life, I enjoy living life even more!!!