One of the ways our family celebrates this wonderful season, is by having each of our children open an envelope advent. We have one special thing we do as a family every day up until Christmas day (drive and see Christmas lights, watch a movie, and so forth). Tomorrow we will watch a movie and this must be one of my all time favorite Christmas movies... ok it's more like a Documentary. "The Star Of Bethlehem" is an investigation into the biblical claims of a real star revealing, guiding, and leading the Magi to the Christ child.
Here is a link to the full length movie for free on youtube, if this looks interesting to you.
Merry Christmas everyone! (This is Johanna by the way).
Here's some Christmas snapshots from around the house.
Don't you love driving past houses and seeing Christmas trees instead of TVS? So cozy.
Mom saw these candy canes at a thrift store, and she knew they were perfect for our porch!
Can you tell that someone is enjoying the tree? ;)
It's that time of the year to pull out the Tom & Jerry cups for some delicious homemade hot cocoa!
I've been having fun with twine and wrapping my gifts in any new way that I can think of!
My Grandparents showed up with this fun surprise gift! Besides, who ever has enough chocolate?:)
The Nativity set is on our mantel and is so pretty.
I love this Christmas ball with a picture of Dad and Mom on their wedding day. They celebrated their seventeenth anniversary this year!
Well, I hope you enjoy the photos!
Happy Holidays! I hope your's are wonderful and blessed.
Make some memories and just enjoy the season!
November is a busy month in our family, we like to call it our party month. Four birthdays, our anniversary, and Thanksgiving. We have lots of good times, but by the end of the month I'm ready for December. I just love Christmas. It's a time for celebration, spending time together, cozy nights by the fire, and working on little projects.
Our house has a vintage feel that I love. Built in the early fifties, I felt the need to go for a vintage looking tree. My kids wanted color lights this year. A Christmas tour coming soon.
I thought y'all might need a baby fix ;) Getting big, huh?
The lighting was awful for this picture and we could barely see. We went out to the woods with friends to get our tree, and it was COLD! Lots of fun though. Wearing orange, because it was still deer season, safety first.
Bring on December...with it's cooking, festivities, and many cozy evenings ahead.
I hope you all enjoy this Christmas season.
- Abby Jo
We have a computer up and running again, woo-hoo!
It's been a long time, so many photos built up over the last few months, and we have been busy with a ton of projects. I have so much to share with you all.
I'm going to start easy by showing you Thanksgiving day, and a few fall pictures.
This is a my rosemary tree, her name is Cilia... I kid,I kid :) It was one of my birthday presents. I love it, makes me smile every time. l really like simple, rustic, and elegant elements and I mix them up to make my own style for my home. I think decorating, cooking, and preserving foods are some of my favorite pastimes.
Below, getting ready to cook the Thanksgiving feast.
It's crazy how busy we have been! My parents joke, that it seems like we are homesteading more intense here, than when we lived out in the woods with no electricity. I think that we had so many projects of late, because we are customizing our little homestead in town. Here is a list of what we have been up to the last few months: canning & drying 250lbs of apples, cutting up deer & making jerky, I have been learning how to cook meat better, I just mastered cooking the perfect steak, we put half a beef in our freezer ( first time in my whole life to have that much beef in my freezer). We have raised pigs in the past, but our friends are raising a pig for us this year ( more on that later). We have been remodeling our basement, Daniel also built me the most amazing butler's pantry for our food, herbs, and a cool work area. I ferment, and dry a lot in my new work space. We worked on our outdoor living area, and will finish that up this spring/summer. We hope to add chickens, bees, and rabbits next phase. We also have the task of converting our side lawn into garden space this spring. I know I didn't write the half of it, but what came to mind. In the midst of this we have our new sweet little boy, now five months old and our wonderful gaggle of children:
ages 9 thru 15 going on 16 ;)
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and are enjoying this cozy time of year. The unveiling of our Christmas tree comes tomorrow.
P.S. We have new videos coming soon.
- Abby Jo
Sorry everyone, for taking way too long to post the winner for the July giveaway. I do have excuses! Our basement flooded two weeks ago, what a mess. The children are displaced. Now they have to sleep on the couches at night, until this whole ordeal is fixed. Our main computer has to get fixed too, so I will have to use are old laptop for now. My camera won't upload on the old laptop, so I'm going to dig out my old camera and see if it will upload. I hope we can, I want to do Thursdays pictures again!
Now onto more important news, the WINNER IS... Diana Smith!
Congrats, I will be in contact with you. Diana Smith wanted the Milk Cow Kitchen. She won't be disappointed, I love this book!
Here it is... Granny's Cocoa Sauce recipe and video. Filmed one day before baby was born! I think we are getting better at this video thing. Do tell me what you think!
Granny's Cocoa Sauce
1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
4 tbsp organic flour
1/4 cup organic cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup of water
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp vanilla
Watch the video for instructions!
If you have been wondering where I've gone, the answer would be that I'm hanging out with this cute boy 24/7. Our main computer is not working, and I can't upload any new pictures at the moment. Thursdays pictures are on hold for the moment. I've been taking a billion pictures lately, and I can't wait to show you our cool outdoor bathing/cooling off area.
I just wanted to tell you all that you need to enter July's giveaway and please leave a comment on the page HERE. People have been subscribing to our youtube channel and Pinterest, but not leaving comments. Leave a comment HERE and get a chance to win one of these cool books! Plus if you are reading this blog right now, all you have to do is leave a comment saying why you like homesteading books HERE! I know there are hundreds of you that get my blog posts right to your email inbox.... leave a comment HERE, saying Hi and you will be entered into the giveaway! Share about this giveaway and leave a comment HERE! It's that easy!!!
Plus stay tuned, we are going to have a new youtube out this week! And it has to do with Chocolate!!!
Subscribing to our youtube channel HERE, you get to view our videos as soon as they are uploaded!
Hi this is Johanna, doing Thursday's Pictures for mom. She is doing great and thanks all of you for your emails and comments of congratulations.
Here are pictures of our awesome 4th of July, celebration.
We have a tradition of allowing everyone to drink as much soda as they want on the 4th of July. This started when my grandma was a little girl on the farm. It was a huge treat, and only once a year. Mom makes sure there is always an organic or all natural cane sugar pop for us kids, no matter what everyone else brings!
We also bought this! A one gallon keg of micro brewed root beer for floats.
And as any celebration is really about food, I'll show you what we ate!
My Grandma's AMAZING Potato salad, and above, the best organic corn ever!
Daddy is the master barbecue man. :)
Dessert! A Strawberry Roulade that I made from a Martha Stewart recipe.
It was stuffed with whipped cream and strawberries as you can see in this picture.
Can you see the look of pride on my face?
Mom did well on the fourth, she just nursed and chilled out with the family! We are in love with little brother!
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!
We are introducing a new series today, where we share the Homestead Love and feature other Homesteaders and Artisans! From all walks of life. Homesteading is an adventure, and everyone does it a little different. I love to learn and glean from others, so here we go... Big hello to Melissa from the Faulk Farmstead!
Where is your homestead located and how did this crazy adventure start for you?
About two years ago, our family was given the chance to fulfill a dream I had been pondering for quite some time – To start our own farm. Originally, all I wanted was to get a little acreage, let the hubby get his man-shop, plant a garden, and get a few animals – nothing big and crazy. Maybe a few chickens and a little milking goat. How quickly it spiraled out of control! We now homestead in beautiful Washington state on five acres. Our small dreams have grown into 30-some-odd chickens, 5 ducks, 1 goose, 5 goats, and a cow! It still amazed me!
What does homesteading mean to you?
To me, homesteading is a way of life for us, but also a state of mind. It stemmed from a strong desire to provide for my family and feed them food that I can say I know EXACTLY where it came from. I started by cooking strictly from scratch, which then evolved to trying to determine how to PRODUCE the food we were consuming. We are not a self-sustaining homestead, but we are definitely headed in the right direction!
Did you grow up homesteading, or is this something you’ve had to learn?
Neither of us had been raised homesteading, so this has been quite the learning curve for us! We found, however, that our hunger for knowledge was enough to keep us going – we certainly have made lots of mistakes along the way, but without those mistakes, we wouldn’t have learned!
Food and homesteading go hand in hand on the homestead, how has it affected your cooking and lifestyle?
I feel like my passion for food and its roots is was stemmed my desire to homestead. We try to make as much from scratch as we can, with our favorite staples being fresh bread, milk from our goats, eggs from our chickens, and vegetables from our garden. We are also fortunate to have elk or venison every year from my husband’s hunting. I continue to strive to make everything from scratch – to the best of my ability. My full-time job outside of the homestead can sometimes hinder my well-laid plans – Lots of planning goes into eating so well, but it is worth it!
How has homesteading changed your mindset?
I have learned to slow down and enjoy the moment. Life moves entirely too fast and we miss out on so much. It is humbling to see your food from seed to leaf, egg to chicken, baby to milk.
What has been the most influential book on your homestead journey?
Oh goodness, the books! They have been such a fuel to my fire! If I had to narrow it down to one, I would have to pick Growing a Farmer, by Kurt Timmermeister. As a newbie homesteader with zero experience, it was inspiring to see someone who had as little experience as I – and how they thrived in that situation. It really made me think, “Well why the hell CAN’T I do this?!”
What are a few ways on your homestead that you practice sustainability?
When I think of sustainability, one thing that comes to mind is a call to action. Our current food routines at home triggered an impulse in me to get to the root of food for us – and see it through from start to finish – field to plate. Since then, we have been growing our own vegetables. The scraps of those vegetables go to our chickens. Our chickens provide us with eggs – and when spent (or an aggressive rooster), they provide our family with meat. Seeing that path come full-circle, THAT is what sustainability is for us.
How do you fund your homestead?
Currently, we cannot afford to homestead on its own. We do sell our eggs, which in turn pays for their feed. We both currently hold jobs as registered nurses outside of the home. However, it is truly a dream of mine to one day figure out how to make enough money on the homestead to cut down on my “day-job”.
What are some hard lessons you’ve had on the homestead?
Sometimes, no matter how much research you perform and how well you plan ahead, sometimes bad things happen. We lost two calves early on from circumstances beyond our control. We literally went above and beyond – and It didn’t make a difference. The biggest lesson we have learned is that sometimes, things are out of our control – and you just have to roll with it. You simply need to be willing to learn from EVERY experience that homesteading brings to you.
Do you have any long-term goals for your homestead?
Ultimately, I would love to be able to generate income on our homestead to enable me to cut down on my day job (aka time away from the homestead). We have no plans of ever moving from our current five acres, however, would like to figure out how we can incorporate some different animals on our homestead – Namely pigs and bees.
Final question, what does a normal day look like for you on the homestead?
My days always start with my morning chores – feeding the chickens, ducks, and goats, filling up water basins for all of the animals, and milking goats. On a day where I work outside the home, my day starts around 4:15am – otherwise I am up around 6. If I am not working that day, I then usually have food prep to be done, depending on the day – bread, yogurt, cheese, granola bars, etc. Oh, and don’t forget the housework! With my alternating schedule at work, my daily chores are never all the same – I usually just try to spread the out throughout my week. Eggs are usually collected a few times a day. Evening chores are usually done around 6:30 – feeding everyone, evening goat milking, and putting up the goats for the night. After dinner and dishes and preparing for the next day, it’s time for a warm drink to help me finally crash around 10pm!
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I have. I want to interview more of you wonderful Homesteaders and Artisans, and I don't care if you live in another country, a city, or on the moon. So go to my contact page, and tell me a little about yourself. I will get back to you as time allows.
- Abby Jo
I linked up to:
Homestead Barn Hop
Don't forget our Great Giveaway for the month of July!