Welcome!

In case this is your first time here, there are a few things you should know. Number one, this is a sticky post – it’s here all the time, so if you come back and it’s all you see, scroll down a bit to the new posts. Secondly, I am a Bible-believing, homeschooling mother…but probably not the kind you’re thinking of. Yes, I am a traditionalist, idealist, and self-sufficiency advocate…but I am also a working woman (I install sheet metal with my husband, among other jobs), and I hate putting my children through workbooks and drills…though they sometimes require these things.

Also (another thing you should know), my family and I shared the house I grew up in with many demons and ghosts, and this has given me, what some would say, an unnatural talent for discovering and dealing with such things. I thank the LORD for such an opportunity. There are far too many Christians who have no clue about such things, and refuse to touch them.

So…here are the topics I plan on tackling in the somewhat near future:

1) An Advent Countdown, focusing as much as possible on soldier Christmas tales, whether ancient or recent. I have failed to relocate some of the stories I wanted to share, so some dates may be missing at first. That’s life.

I will also include some recipes that have found blessing time and again at potlucks and family gatherings. I hope you’ll take time to enjoy some of them for yourself.

Last year’s Advent Countdown focused primarily on Scandinavian topics and stories, with some family-oriented posts sprinkled in .

2) Roland and Marla – My first time facing down a demon – Parts 8 and beyond.

3) The Eye Tree - My first serious paranormal experience, and the road it led me on. I am working on explaining some of the aftermath of these incidents with The Eye Tree, and will include at least one guest post from my sister, as she had different and in ways deeper dealings with the old girl than did I. 

4) Making food feel welcome - packaging techniques and ideas.

5) Why we bought the Old Hotel - what were we thinking? – and what do we intend to do with it now?

6)  Tyger and the Elephants – an Adventure in paranormal, through the eyes of a two-year-old

7) Why weedy gardens can be good - how to take advantage of what Nature throws in your direction

My aim, as always, is to show you what my family and I are doing to make our home more whole, more useful, and more capable of holding and being a part of long-held desires and dreams.

And…

“May those that love us, love us,

And those that don’t love us, may God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles,

So we’ll know them by their limping.”

- An anonymous Irish blessing

Now would that be the right foot or the left, do you suppose?

Or both?

What about your own?

Homestead: Goats and Roses

I finally figured out what I want to do about goat fencing.

Since any fence that won’t hold water probably won’t hold goats either, I felt I was in a bit of a fix in trying to save my best trees and flowers from the creatures. At my Dad’s, they have the run of the place, and have stripped nearly every tree of everything green as high as they can stand. I love my plants, and don’t wish such a fate on them. As I puzzled and prayed recently, voila!, I saw it – a rose hedge, advertised to keep critters and kids either in or out.

I feel it is a workable, long-term solution, though it definitely is not a quick fix. Since I was planning on moving some roses from the house in town anyway (I had yellow, white, and pink hedge roses there), I at least have somewhere to start. Then, it will be a matter of getting them to grow in the directions and to the extent that I want them to. And, it won’t matter if the goats eat some; they are unlikely to eat their way through the whole thorny hedge.

I picture a rose fence around the whole yard area, and a perimeter fence around the main tree area, to keep the goats in. (I’d like to save my pasture mostly for other critters, if possible.)

Of course, ideally, I desire a tall, Beauty-and-the-Beast type hedge, all swaying with blood-red roses. (Everything sways here – it’s windy.) Perhaps, all in good time.

Courtesy of: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.growquest.com/rose%2520section/roses_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.growquest.com/rose%2520section/roses_a_to_z%2520L.htm&h=640&w=480&sz=58&tbnid=U4yc_szYk7yRFM:&tbnh=259&tbnw=194&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dred%2Brose%2Bhedge%2Bimages&zoom=1&q=red+rose+hedge+images&hl=en&usg=__TjmsyvK-5BCf_p2fC4WxqvLOgAo=&sa=X&ei=n6ckTbLaHoSlnQec4bXBAQ&ved=0CB0Q9QEwAQ

The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers – a poem to remember to celebrate 1620

The breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rock-bound coast,

And the woods against a stormy sky

Their giant branches tossed;

 

And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o’er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark

On the wild New England shore.

 

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted, came;

Not with the roll of the stirring drums,

And the trumpet that sings of fame:

 

Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear;

They shook the depths of the desert gloom

With their hymns of lofty cheer.

 

Amidst th storm they sang,

And the stars heard, and the sea;

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang

To the anthm of the free.

 

The ocean eagle soared

From his nest by the white wave’s foam,

And the rocking pines of the forest roared, -

This was their welcome home.

 

There were men with hoary hair

Amidst that pilgrim-band:

Why had they come to wither there,

Away from their childhood’s land?

 

There was woman’s fearless eye,

Lit by her deep love’s truth;

There was manhood’s brow serenely high,

And the fiery heart of youth.

 

What sought they thus afar?

Bright jewels of the mine?

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? -

They sought a faith’s pure shrine!

 

Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod;

They have left unstained what there they found, -

Freedom to worship God.

 

- by Felicia D. Hemans, from The Family Book of Best Loved Poems, ed. by David L. George

Advent Countdown: A Mincemeat Recipe

Here is an interesting article I ran across while exploring the possibility of making mincemeat for my family (something I’ve often thought about but never actually done). I have read of women of the past making over 60 mincemeat pies over the holidays, which they stored in an unused bedroom or other cool room in the house, to be used over the winter. I have seen recipes for mincemeat cookies, and all sorts of tasty treats beyond pies. So here goes! Wish me luck! (Though I’m not going to make 60 mincemeat pies this holiday season. One or two will be a good start.)

Here’s the article, with recipe variations. Tell me what you think, and you can tell Patty (the author), too. She’d appreciate it.

To me, mincemet belongs in that somewhat mystical place along with headcheese and homemade cider, shelves full of sewn-up, buttered cheeses and barrels of homemade beer. It comes from a place I’d love to visit, and see how everything is done, and taste and touch and smell, then go home and duplicate the most pleasing parts for my family.

If you wish to share your thoughts about mincemeat, or your favorite recipe for mincemeat, my comments section is open.

Homestead: I’ve Got Snowdrops!

 I’ve always wanted snowdrops. The Lord knew this, and He gave me some! They are growing just to the south of the house, almost under my kitchen windows.

(I apologizie for the terrible photos, but it felt so good to be out in the sun looking at flowers, after such a long winter.)

I am eager to see what other surprises are in store for me here. Violets, maybe?

Homestead: Washing Machine in the Home

“Well, I see that you have brought modern washing into the home!” So Dad said to me when he came to do some work on the house. Will and I had just that morning lugged the wringer washer from its place outside, by the Original House, into the entryway. I had had to throw a bit of a fit to get him to help, loudly explaining (for the fifth time in three weeks) that I was NOT GOING TO WASH CLOTHES IN WATER WITH ICE CHUNKS FLOATING IN IT! So he lifted the wringer off the washer and helped me carry it to the house and up the three steps to the entryway. We had got it put together and hooked back up, and I was having a satisfying time of getting the laundry clean.

And likewise, every week since.

We had hooked up a short length of garden hose to the drain hose – just long enough to run out the front door and off the step. After dealing twice with icy puddles, we rigged up a system to run it through a pipe away from the path, which is working very well.

We also fixed up drying lines in the basement. I had tried to freeze dry the clothes, but there was not enough wind among the trees in the yard to do this properly. After hanging out nearly five days, some of the heavier items were still damp. So there are just three lines, strung the “short” way across the main room, but paired with the wooden drying rack, it is usually enough room to hang a week’s worth of wash.

If I am ever to get the old clothes worth selling washed, I’ll have to up that to at least twice a week.

K-10 and His Basketball

Will often jokes that we’ve adopted a little black boy. K-10 sure isn’t prone to freckles.

His tendencies were confirmed after we caught him resting near his basketball last week.

Tyger added the glasses, but the pose with the ball was spontaneous.

Homestead: The Electricity Is On!

Highline came out to the farm house last Wednesday and got everything ready to turn on the power.

They first replaced the frayed wires coming in from the transformer. They had to add a pole mid-way down the driveway, of to the south side among the trees. This held the new wires much higher than the old ones, and made Will’s tree trimming job mainly unecessary, but who knew?

It was really neat to see the lights come on in the house. I didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal – I mean, I was prepared to live without electricity, if need be. But when the lights came on in the kitchen, the thought struck me, “Yeah, finally – this is a real home!”

We went all over the house, checking every pull-switch and flip-switch, and found the system to be above and beyond expectations. The only problem we noticed was a mild “pop” in the kitchen switch. That one will need replaced.

Other than that, things seem to be ship-shape.

On Internet Furlough

It seems that I will be forced to take a break from my internet access, effective immediately upon moving. The exact date for this remains a mystery…but I’m thinking it will be in the next two to three weeks.

It’s this way:

We need different equipment in order to access the signal from one of two towers in the vicinity of the farm house. We need a direct line of sight to one of them. We also will, of course, need new cable strung into the house, and, as usual, haven’t had an overabundance of money with which to get the needed equipment. We also are still paying on a three-year lease for the last batch of equipment…and will be until July, apparently, whether we move or not.  We are told we may be able to work something out there (keeping fingers crossed).

But any way we come at it, it appears that I will not have internet access for three to four months after moving. Oh well…maybe I’ll take up some hobbies I used to have, like novel writing. Or maybe I’ll finish a couple of sewing projects I’ve let go dormant since high school. I could use a couple new dresses.

And, of course, there’ll always be the new housekeeping routine to get used to, and probably more chores than I’m accustomed to (supposing I bring in milk goats right away), and, weather providing, lots of home improvements to accomplish, both inside and out. I reckon I’ll manage not to get bored.

But I’ll miss e-mailing some of you.

Homestead: Anxious to Get Into the House

Since I can’t stop the phenomenon, the above is about all I can say about the insistent winter weather we’ve been having since October. Really, I guess I wouldn’t mind, except that we haven’t been able to get moved out to the farm house.

Somehow, it’s very difficult to cure paint and make other such improvements in 20* F. weather. Such temperatures are also not that convenient for washing down walls, scrubbing floors, and cleaning hundreds of glass jars which we inherited with the house. Not that I’m complaining about the jars – anyone who gardens and uses canning as a food preservation method will know that it’s hard to have too many jars.

Still, I wish that the snow would melt, and that grass would once agai grow. I’m not asking much. Just four or five days of fifty to sixy degree temperatures would allow us to do wonders.

Sigh.

But it looks like we’ll have to do without those wonders. Last July or thereabout, I vowed that if possible, I would not spend another winter in our present house.  It was cold all summer long. It’s been at times downright miserable this winter, even with both woodburners going at full capacity.

So I have decided that I don’t need new paint right away. I don’t re-finished floors. I don’t need a lot of things. But I need to get out of this house, and out of this town. I need to have room to let my kids play, and room to enjoy being human. This town doesn’t allow that sort of thing.

For Christmas, Will gave me a very special gift. Do you like the wrapping? 

He managed to pick up two wine glasses:

This photo was snapped amid all the hubbub on Christmas Day. I was going to get a better one, but decided against it, for this reason – the electronics and pretty little night light (Tyger’s) are part of the wonder that needs worked at the farm house.

There’s been no electricity out there for nearly 20 years. We finally got a guy from the Highline Association to come inspect the wires and general situation. He determined that they need to replace the wires, and add a pole, before they can safely hook things back up.

Darn.

Delays, delays, nothing but delays.

Still, I guess I wouldn’t so much enjoy being out there if I couldn’t connect to all my internet junkie friends (all two of them), and add trash like this to the glut of blogs clogging the internet. And, really, it’s not much of a delay – Highline’s supposed to put in that pole and replace the wires tomorrow.

Then we can move!

And Will and I can use those wine glasses to celebrate our new phase of life. He won’t let me touch them until then.

Homestead: Preparing For Highline to Turn on the Electricity

As the sun was setting, Will recently finished an important task. The branches of the trees lining the driveway had grown up into the highline wires.

Will took his chainsaw to them, then used his tractor forks to push them out of the way, and haul them to a burn pile he’s made in the pasture. He’s also hauled out an enormous amount of tumbleweeds and other brush. We’ll have a bonfire on the first windless, wet day available. Get a member of the local volunteer fire department to drive the  water truck out, in case anything goes wrong.

Will’s tree surgery opened the drive up considerably, knocking out some of the charm which the over-arching branches made, but it had to be done.

And it’s not that bad:

Homestead: Old Dresses, Old Dresses, Old Dresses For Sale

One of the last upstairs rooms which I cleaned was the old lady’s bedroom. I had to work up some gumption to clear out some of those things, though after I started, I realized the room was relatively easy to clear out, being clogged primarily with cardboard boxes.

The old dresses from the closet were perhaps the biggest challenge, though I had already carried out and either sorted or burned almost inumerable boxes of clothes.

During this process, I learned some interesting things about the old lady…such as that, apparently, she never bought into the sanitary napkin fad. She kept to the old ways and tore up worn-out clothes instead, thank you very much.

Talk about surprise packages.

She also didn’t seem to have much sense of personal style. I can find absolutely no correlation between her clothes and personality, as they come in several sizes, virtually all colors and patterns, and were mostly sent mail-order from at least a dozen manufacturers. Moreover, she seems to have quit buying clothes during the late 1960′s or early 1970′s.

That’s not saying there aren’t some very pretty things. A black 1920′s style hat, for instance – new in the wrapper and still in the original box. Even the face veil hadn’t been removed from it’s original sack.

Or how about some flirty little kitchen aprons, done up in ginham, strawberry prints, and sunshiny yellows? I think I may keep a few of those, though they’re not exactly brand spanking new.

There are so many accessories and belts and such that I am hopeless of ever sorting them out with the right dresses. Afterall, I wound up with one closet (in the future music room) absolutely stuffed with boxes of clothes which may be salvageable to a collector, doll-dress maker, or housewife, and another eight-foot space of closet cram-packed with hanging dresses.

Those from this stack continued to deteriorate in transit, due to having plaster and dirt rained down on them from the roof leaklast summer…

…but I’ll let someone more knowledgeable than I make the decision on whether to try to salvage and sell them. I’m thinking Will’s cousin Roxan is a good candidate.

Homestead: Clean Rooms!

Here are a few pictures from around the house, showing the dents we’ve been able to make in the messes.

In case you missed the original post on that subject, here is what the house looked like the first time we walked in:

This bedroom is typical of every room in the house. Actually, it’s piled less high than were many of the rooms.

This storage room is another prime example. Nowhere to step without stepping on stuff.

Here are the improvements:

These two pictures were taken in the living room. While many of the old cans, bottles, and jars from the basement had to be stacked here, it is still an improvement. Originally, the entire floor (including under the couch) was littered with magazines, mouse turds, and sewing supplies.

Here is the “After” picture of the bedroom at the top. No, most of the floors are not washed, but at least there is walking room!

Another bedroom. This one was full of clothes, books, and spilled food. I want it to be a music room, complete with piano, fiddles, guitars, and trumpet. Will’s extended family were all musically inclined, and I enjoyed playing my homemade fiddle in highschool. Among the four of us (Will, the children, and I), we play several instruments.

I love the way the main floor divides neatly into two halves. This is the door leading from the dining room to the hallway. That is the Hall Closet of the Feminine Hand opposite.

Where to From Here?

I feel we have a long ways to go, even though the majority of the spaces are cleared of trash and excess belongings. For instance, nearly every wall and floor needs washed. This will not be a bad task once the weather warms up sufficiently, but has been imossible to attack while the mercury insists on reading in the 20′s (F.).

Not that everything is terribly dirty. Many of the bookshelves have developed less dust buildup in eighteen years than mine do in eighteen days (no joke). And the walls in the living room proved shockingly clean, when given the wet white cloth test.

But the floor in the kitchen, which I washed prior to us sleeping on it on New Year’s, took three buckets of water and over an hour of scrubbing. Oh well, a small price to pay. The dining room floor – old linoleum covered with red roses – made me smile, once I realized how bright it still was under its coating of dried mud. I was a bit disappointed in how dull the hardwood floor around the perimeter of the room looked once it was scrubbed, but I think a refinish job will fix most of this. The floors since then have stayed remarkably clean, and brighten up with just a swipe of a cloth. A far cry from my present floors – carpet and hardwood alike – which are so worn that they altogether resist cleanliness.

I know once all the old dirt and grime is scrubbed (and scraped) away, the house will feel very much like home. It already largely does.

I have begun moving other belongings out there, stowing them in cabinets and cupboards. It is my hope that by the time we are actually ready to move, we won’t have much left to do. On the other hand, we can only move out so much of what we use on a regular basis.

At least I can take comfort knowing that our current small house has forced us to be rid of things that we don’t really use. We won’t have a whole lot of trashing to do, and very few garage sale-type items.

Homestead: Our Plumbing Situation

I’ve mentioned before how the farmstead has virtually no plumbing. The shower in a corner of the basement (fed with a jet pump mounted on the outside of the house), a washer hookup (in the entryway), and a hole in the kitchen counter which once held a hand-pump (apparently) are all the features immediately available.

Several months ago, Will fixed part of the problem this way:

This little building was originally cobbled together in order to house a temporary electrical hookup at a client’s pole barn, which was under construction. Will made it to appear like an outhouse as a joke. Little did he know he would spend time and effort improving it for that very purpose.

At present, it is a bucket-model, featuring a used cattle-mineral bucket. Will built a seating platform over this, including a place to set extra toilet paper, and women’s supplies. The design does need one modification: He didn’t leave much room between the edge of the seat and the door. This means that only skinny people can properly close the door.

The other thing we’ve done is discover the old lady’s port-a-potty:

This was in the basement, under the bear-skin coat.

I at first thought it was a combination chair/storage chest. Then I opened the lid and saw the round hole.

And it is a storage unit of sorts, I guess you could say. Not that you’d want to store anything for an overly long time.

Tyger, especially, appreciates the convenience of not having to trot outside, and tries to leverage it whenever possible. This has been a bit frustrating, as she has left a couple surprises for us. It’s hard to make a three-year-old understand why she should use the outhouse during the day.

 We also need a better-fitting bucket.

Our plans for the future include a fully outfitted bathroom, and a simple, wood-heated hot water heater for the kitchen, at least. But these things will have to wait.

At the moment, I’d be happy with a proper hole in the ground, and a well-placed out house.

I’d like to consider a composting toilet, but Will will have none of that, at the moment.

Baths will be an old-fashioned affair in a tub in front of the kitchen stove (or whichever stove is warmest).

Many before us have survived this kind of living. I reckon we’ll do fine.

Homestead: The Frozen Car

While trying to clean up some of the scrap metal around the place, Will ran into an interesting situation. This car was originally braced with a rotten fence post, and he wouldn’t let the children or dog anywhere near it, rightfully fearing that it might spontaneously fall and crush them. However, when it came time to get it out of there, the car would not fall.

Rather precarious, yes?

Will was working with his nephew, Clint, who lives just five miles from the farmstead. They gingerly removed the post, and nothing happened. They gave the car a push, and nothing happened. With Will’s tractor, they shoved, coerced, and demanded…but still the car refused to fall. They chained it and tried to drag it out. It would not budge.

Finally, they left it alone, hoping that the sun and gravity would do it’s work, as the side of the car was apparently frozen to the ground.

It took three weeks for the car to finish falling.

Homestead: The New Improved Cellar

 The cellar was the first room in the farm house which we cleaned well enough to begin using. Last November, I believe, we cleared out every old jar, toy, stove part, broken broom handle, toy, and rock (the old lady had an amazing collection, and began the process of scrubbing it down, removing dead mice and their sign, and making it suitable for our needs.

In case you missed it in the original post, here is what we started with:

Here is what we wound up with:

The space of the room seems doubled! Those are some of my home canned goods and extra dishes on the shelves now. Since this picture was taken, I have moved almost all of my canned goods, and discovered that I still have lots of room left for other things. I plan to store buckets of grains and other supplies under the shelves. (We still need to move some pallets in, as the floor stays damp and has permanent piles of residue from rusted-through paint cans, spilled, gummy-textured linseed oil mixed with broken bits of cement, and other unidentified substances. Soap and water can only do so much.) I want to make or collect some bins and boxes suitable for root crops and other produce, such as cabbages.

I plan on putting an old refrigerator (the yellow one currently in the entry) in the back righthand corner. It doesn’t need to work, as I wish to keep aging cheeses in it, and the cellar stays a very good temperature and humidity for that. The main thing is to keep the mice from eating the cheeses before they’re finished.

These are the shelves on the east wall. I planned originally to keep empty canning jars and other storage jars on these. However, I’ve since discovered that I have far more jars than there is room for. I will therefore keep the largest jars (which once held honey) in the back storage room, and keep my canning jars and jelly glasses here. I will have to play it by ear with the others, as the old lady kept every jar she ever received, and I can’t bear to throw most of them out without a cause. Everything shown here is what I have found in the farm house and outbuildings, and washed. I will have to bake them before actually using them for anything, as many contained mice turds and  other unmentionables.  My actual canning jars are almost all at Mom’s right now, as we needed everything we could lay hands on last gardening season.

The entire top shelf of the west shelves is free for other things than canned goods. The cellar stays between 50* and 60* F. during the summer, and between 30-something and 40* F. during the winter. This means we will rarely have to use a refrigerator. I plan on intalling ours in the kitchen for those rare times, and for storing certain other things which can’t abide to be handled by mice, but I may not keep it there long. We have used this top shelf off and on to store milk and other eatables for snacking while we’re working out at the place, and there is no reason not to continue this practice.

I figure I’ll keep a large tray handy for carting things up and down the stairs. If this sounds inconvenient, remember that we often cook large pots of things, as well as keeping a roaster full of dog food handy (usually chunks of raw beef), and frequently have many more items to keep chilled than we have fridge room for. This means that we are always running to the basement stairs landing, or the garage, or the picnic table for this or that or the other thing anyway (except during the summer, when our fridge is usually stuffed to bursting). Having everything in one place sounds very nice.

I will, however, have to keep a step stool in the cellar, as at 5’5″, I can’t even see the top shelf while standing on the cellar floor. I’ll keep the things we use the most within easy reach of the top cellar step, which is just inside the door. I’m looking forward to actually using my wonderful cellar.