Merry Christmas

Hope you are all having a very Merry Christmas! Our house is all picked up. My boys are enjoying their gifts while we wait for Christmas Lunch to finish cooking.
My parents gave me a pressure canner for Christmas. I can NOT wait to order seeds for my garden this year. I can make bone broth now and can it.

I also received some cute chicken jewelry. I have earrings to match the silver necklace.

 Here are the rest of my chicken themed gifts.

 My boys gave me a new table cloth and runner. Someday I'm hoping to travel to OK to visit the Merc.

Last of my gifts those who know me in person see how busy I am as a sports mom and I now have the perfect bag to carry all the blankets, snacks and drinks in.

I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

In closing, I will leave you with a photo of the weather here in Maine today with the prediction of 8-12"

200th Post

Yesterday I started decorating for Christmas. We bought wreaths from my son who is selling wreaths for his college baseball team.

 In order to finish decorating I need to go buy some more tacks.  We will buy our Christmas tree next week. I love having a real tree. 

My favorite part of Christmas is decorating with my grandparents decorations. It's too bad when you are younger you can not see the value in family. With each famy member that passes a hole in your heart gets a little bigger. I take comfort in knowing some family I will see again in Heaven. 

Hoping my husband is able to switch over the electricity to our well. The person who used to own our house disconnected the electricity to our well today. We were waiting for our electrician to come back in the spring from FL to convert it but we have no choice now.  Having no water or heat when it is in the 20's is not fun.  In the future we will be investing in a pellet or wood stove.

Once I get done decorating i will post some pics!

Heat is on and Homemade gifts

Finally turned the heat on this past week. We had days in the 20's. We had a dusting of snow but in other areas it has snowed more than here.
A friend of mine came over Thursday and after an hour figured out what was wrong with my sewing machine and fixed it!! I was able to make an apron out of my grandfather's handkerchiefs!! I also sewed a memory pillow out of my other grandfather's t-shirt. Next I am going to sew a memory bear.
I making my oldest son's girlfriend see themed homemade gifts. I can't wait to post pics but it will have to be after she has them. I can say most I have never made before.
We did have 3 ducks die last week due to being trampled. A hard life lesson to learn as one was my son's. 
I noticed this year our goats fur is a lot thicker. I still may buy them a pony blanket to wear as I worry about them being cold.
Tomorrow I am going to visit my grandmother and look at a farmhouse. Enjoy your evening and  I will post a pic of the Apron in another post along with some so-called glitter candles.

How Long Before the Heat Goes on?

A few friends and I all see how long we go in the fall before we turn our heat on. We still have not, even though it was 30 when we got up this morning.

This afternoon I have been watching videos of Homesteaders of America conference. It was this last weekend in Warrenton, VA. I bought a T-shirt hoping to attens but it didn't work out so I'm planning on going next year.  In a couple of weeks we will start receiving news about it. Its nice seeing everyone together!

I've noticed my goats fur is getting thicker, ready for colder weather. I love how Oreo's "mowhawk" is getting longer.

It's been pretty windy the last couple days so our trees are really baring up. I need to pull up the dead flowers in the flower beds this week.

Our meat birds go Thursday to be processed
 Tomorrow they wont be able to have any food. The 3 of them have enjoyed going into the woods and hanging out near the apple trees.

I need to finish putting supper together and finish my Caramel Apple Tea.

October Musings

So, I have to say I'm rather bummed I am not in VA at the Homesteaders of America conference today. It's just one more trip I will add to my travel bucket list and hope they have another.

Today we made candy apples and caramel apples. 

My oldest son and his girlfriend have been visiting for the week. Yesterday we went to a local farm in Levant called Treworgy's and went through the corn maze. This year it was Paul Bunyan.

My friend Rose from church was giving hay rides but we didnt go on one because we didnt see her.  Also at the farm you get to see goats and horses, fresh flower bouquets, pick pumpkins, pick apples and they even make homemade donuts and sell ice cream. For more information check them out at www.treworgyorchards.com

Here are some pics around the farm and of some recently baked goods.

Apple Picking

A friend and I went apple picking together yesterday. I picked 2 bushels of apples and she picked a bushel and a half. Tuesday we plan on making applesauce together to freeze. My boys love the homemade applesauce.
Last night I baked 2 apple pies but I plan on canning some apple pie filling to store for the winter months when we feel like having pie.
After apple picking at Conant's in Etna we srove to Countryside Restaurant in Corinth and had lunch then we went to Rocky Ridge Farm in Corinth to buy pumpkina that are only $1 per pumpkin! The small ones are $.50/each.
For some reason I cant get my photos to upload I will post when i can.

New Book Coming April 2018

I wanted to put a buzz out for my Homestead friend Amy Fewell's book that is coming out in April 2018. She has a wonderful website that has a variety of interests on it. www.thefewellhomestead.com.
Here is a screenshot of her book that I posted on my Facebook page:

A Trip to the Amish

On Saturday the 30th a friend of mine and I went to visit our local Amish Community to learn a little more about their self-sufficiency and farming.
Our first stop was to the Community Market to purchase a dozen donuts for our families as they are SO delicious and then we went to one of the Amish homes.
They have a beautifully designed farmhouse with lots of windows and a couple of porches.  Inside the house was a nice Pioneer Princess wood cook stove which we found out our host's father and Uncle made the air tight design for this stove.  I also loved her sink that had 2 large sections and a small section in the middle.
We learned that a young woman who lived with them was learning how to make tinctures and salves. She was drying out cayenne peppers on top of the stove and cutting up more to use for her tinctures as well as for cooking.  She also makes her own teas out of the herbs they grow on the farm. This young woman is studying 2 different books learning how to make the tinctures and salves. These 2 books are being added to my must buy book list!
This year this family decided to try growing heritage wheats and may expand growing more next year. We had the privilege of eating some if it in her homemade pizza crust that was topped with homemade sauce,  homemade cheese, homemade sausage and one was topped with chicken from their farm. Dessert was Apple Dumplings. I had never had those before but they were very delicious!! Im going to look up a recipe online and make some for my family after we go apple picking this week. They put milk on their desserts but I was not brave enough to try milk on it.
On this farm they had several greenhouse with tomatoes grown in them. They also had a couple more greenhouses near a wood mill that were used for seed starting.  Their garden was really big and had lots of veggies, herbs and a few flowers. Made my garden look like a postage stamp. They do put plastic over their rows to help cut down on the weeds.
The had Cornish Rock Hens as their meat birds who had a cute bantam rooster outside the chicken tractor "taking care of" them. They had another tractor with turkeys in them.
Inside the barn is their laying hens, their ram, a few pigs and a calf. Out to pasture were their katahdin sheep. 🐑
They also grow their own blueberries, raspberries and have a small orchard started with apples, plums, cherries, peaches and cherries.
It was a fun and educational trip!

Farm photo update

Milkshake's baby goat

Farmher

So I am so proud to say I have accomplished quite a few things myself at the farm. I was able to bring my baby chicks from the basement of our house to their new house outside. I even fixed their outside growing coop by MYSELF.

See my very happy little chicks?♡ The green wire is the new part I fixed on our growing coop.
I made a dust bath for my chickens out of DE. My youngest son helped me.

Also the HUGE manure pile on my garden is officially spread out and will be tilled in the soil next month.

We had our first broody hen today. She built a nest inside the dog house we have that we used for the ducks when they were smaller.
I ended up switching out her egg for a fake egg when she walked out and another chicken actually laid an egg in there.

My biggest gain today is my ducks laid their first egg today. Excuse the dirty eggs. My duck and hens like to hide them in a dirty part of the barn I can't reach.

Here is my beautiful duck egg cleaned up.

It's so nice getting eggs again. The kids get as excited as I do looking for them. :)

It's official!!

We have officially opened a chapter of Ladies Homestead Gathering for Maine. Our chapter will be called Penobscot County Ladies Homestead Gathering.
Our next meeting will be April 22nd in Springfield. Topic will be Beekeeping. I have reached out to Penobscot County Beekeeping Association and am hoping someone will be available to come speak to us about the beginning basics of how to do beekeeping.
By the next meeting in May we should have some flyers available to post in local farm stores and for people to hand out.
Board Members will be posted in May once everything is officially set up.
We appreciate your patience and interest of this group starting in Maine!!

Signs of Spring

Today my middle son and I started mucking out the chicken coop. We got about 1/4 of it done and will wait until it warms up a little more this week. The chickens and ducks were so happy to be outside for awhile. My son was a little

grossed out I was mucking it out in sandals instead of my boots. I did not want to take the time to go switch shoes after dropping my teens off at the mall.
I will be sure to post a pic of a freshly clean barn once i get it done. I need to completely clean the perches and duck area as well. I need to figure out something better for their water as the ducks love muddying it up.
Here are some pics of the memory garden. My crocus are blossomed already. Now I just need to rake out the beds this week when it warms up.

I love the flowers coming up. It's a true sign of winter going away!! 

I also filled some of my 🐦 feeders today. I have 2 more out back to fill. Then next week I plan on changing the corn on the squirrel feeder.

I need to get back to watching Battle of the Badges in Hampden. 

Have a good evening.

Homemade Broccoli & Cheese Soup

Tonight for supper I made my grandmother's Soup. It is pretty simple to make and very delicious!! Next time I make it though I just need to sift the flour so it mixes easier. 

I am happy to say by moving our heat lamp I have not lost any more chicks!!! It's been 2 days in a row they have been going strong so Im hoping we will not lose anymore. Out of 21 I lost 7 birds!!!

Mr. Krabs died this week too so this week I give myself an F as a homesteader!

Ladies Homestead Gathering &Illness

We had our informational meeting of Ladies Homestead Gathering. There were 4 of us that gathered here at the farm. We made a list of subjects we would like to further our knowledge on and also discussed Back To Eden Gardening.
We have decided while our group is small we will rotate meeting locations so we can see how different women run their farms. Our next meeting we are going to a farm that is offgrid.
We are waiting for our official membership to be approved for our chapter. Then we will start advertising and putting flyers out.
Out of our 21 chicks we have lost 4. I have 1 barred rock left. Our meat birds are growing so fast!! They are so nuch bigger than the laying birds it makes me laugh when I see them. I will end up seperating them soon.  Next year I'm hoping to have a separate section in the barn for meat birds and possibly get a few more than 6.
I did find out we need to get our male goat disbudded again. I'm on the search for someone who can do that. Poor guy. I cant imagine that will be pleasant!
I'm off to bring my daughter to her appointment. We have had influenza A hit through our children and chest cold. I will be glad to get rid of the bugs and santize this house for the last time!!

Adding to the Farm

Here are some new additions to the Farm:
3 Barred Rock, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 White Leghorn, 3 Araucana, 3 Buff Orpington.

We are raising 6 meat birds for the first time too. If it is successful this year than next year I will plan on raising more!

This year we went to Tractor Supply and bought some chicken wire on sale to improve what we use as a brooder. The last 2 years we have put them in an XL dog kennel. But the holes in the cage are large enough for the cat to get his arm through so we put chicken wire all the way around the kennel. I am even using the same heat bulb that I have the past couple of years!

This weekend I was able to get 8 free Ball canning jars from an ad on Craigslist. They look like jam jars which is an impressive score for me!

Here are all the chicks in our homemade brooder.♡

Jordan doesn't know what to think of the peeping.

Here is our fat cat Sylvester eating and keeping an eye on the chicks.

The timer on the oven is going off the Shepherd's Pie is done for the family.