Safe, warm and winning!

I am starting to feel I am winning the battle with these stubborn germs that have kept me pretty much in the bed for the last several days. I am still congested, but feeling a little stronger. I did get into town for a few things we needed, and I am glad there is not much else besides dinner on the to do list for the day.

We have a pretty significant ice event headed our way with snow behind it, so I would imagine we will be homebound for quite a few days. I can only pray that we keep power, however we have and will be making sure we have what we need to get by. ( I just may be putting those little olive oil lamps to work ) 

 I still have to get some water ready because we are on a well, if we lose power, we lose water. But that can wait until the last minute. The storm isn't due here until late Monday/early Tuesday. and in thinking about this, one thing is certain, I need to save all milk jugs and juice containers for a while, I don’t know if we will have enough water so I will fill up the tub and a couple of totes, and boil if I have to.

The last major ice event for this area was 5 or 6 years ago when my son was much younger. We still lived in town at that point, so when the power went off I didn’t have much choice but to go to a red cross shelter for a while. Since my son is autistic and very sensitive to “too much” anything it was not a good thing. We stayed at the red cross building (they had a generator) the first day and night the storm came. There were only 13 people and the staff so that part was a breeze, it was the next day, when they sent all of us in a van to a nearby high school gym. That was an experience, let me tell you. 

I still think that the ones involved in the planning should be aware that there are special needs folks out there that just can't tolerate being in a crowded situation like that.  My son was so overwhelmed by all the sound, people and strangeness that after an afternoon there I knew that it wasn’t going to work and asked them to take us home. The most they would do was take us back to town, to the main office so we did, and walked home from there. It wasn't very far and he was so glad to be away from people that he didn't care it was cold out or he had to keep steping over limbs and branches that had fallen from the ice load.

 After spending a very cold night huddled under every blanket in the house, snuggling as much as he could stand, my sister came from a different city to get us and we wound up spending 4 days there with her before the area we lived in had power and we could come home.

Because of the severity of that storm and knowing that my son can’t handle going into a shelter situation, I have to make sure we are ready here, and I think we are. He is aware of the possibility of the ice coming, he still very much remembers the last one, and he is as ready as he is going to be. He is pretty worried that he won't be able to play his playstation, but he has charged his DS and is ready to deal with that for now. We are also going to take a walk around the property tomorrow, looking for anything that might be useful or pretty, that way while we are stuck with no power for games I can show him how to create things with nature made items we find while we walk around. I think we will be taking some pictures also so we can share them with you after the storm, kind of a before and after thing, he will have fun helping me set it up and put it together on the computer.

Finally, talking of finding things while walking around has also got me thinking about the coming warmer weather. We like to spend a lot of time near or on the water when we can and there is a river nearby as well as a swimming beach at the local reservoir. When the weather and water warm enough we will be getting our canoe out again and doing some serious paddling! We always find neat things near the river like odd shaped stones and shells of creatures that live in the river. sometimes we find driftwood worth collecting and sometimes other things. Ahh the dreams of spring and summer.

Well, I reckon it’s pretty apparent that I am feeling better. Just in time too! I will be catching up on reading all of your blogs this evening and tomorrow, before the bad weather gets here. No matter what kind of weather you have at your house I hope you are all safe and warm!

Until next time.

Deb

The fever is over

Hello all, I thought I would try to write a lil here today even though I am still not up to doing much yet. I am no longer running a fever, however when I tried to get up and get going this morning I didn't get far before realizing that full recovery may be a few days in coming. Not a good feeling, but what can I do other than get the rest needed to accomplish the task.
I am hoping I can find the energy to make a trip into town tomorrow, there are a few things I need to get and it looks like we may well be in the grip of both a lot of snow and possibly a pretty bad ice storm. we are right on the line on the maps but of course the whole thing could veer one way or another and make it something else, however it looks as if the first part of the week will lead to a few days of being isolated.
So I will get done what needs to be done and then we can sit back and watch whatever comes our way. I wish I didn't have to go anywhere but it seems we have to have certain things around here, like dish soap and toliet paper...lol
Anyway, I reckon I will have plenty of time to catch up on blogging and find some interesting things for my son to do also, especially if we lose power, him without a video game is a serious problem! at least he does have one handheld that he can charge to the max the night before the weather is due so if we do lose power he will have it for  a while.
I hope all of you are staying healthy and warm, and those of you in this storms path are ready. until next time!
Deb

Germs: I hate em!

Ugh, that is how I have been feeling of late. I picked up a bug from the grandkids and both my son and I have been ill for the several days. I have only been able to do the most basic things (like feed us, thankfully) for a little while now, haven't been up to doing anything.
Today I really need to bake some bread, and my friend down the road has asked for some white bread for her hubby, he really likes it! So I am going to make an attempt at getting some things done today. Like writing this.
I have been reading a lot about companion planting lately and have decided that is the way I would like to go, I remember that my great grandfather used to plant a lot of marigolds in the garden but I never knew why! I just thought they were pretty.
I like the idea of one plant helping the other and also helping me with weed and pest control! I have heard a lot of different things from people around me when I asked about it, some seem to think it doesn't always work out so well...what do you think?
The other thing on my mind a lot lately is this; if I don't want to start out with chicks, getting started with chickens, where would I look for young hens? So far I get a lot of gee I don't knows when I ask, so I am hoping that one of my readers may know. I live in Northeastern Indiana, if that helps.
I am hoping that I will feel well enough again soon to get back into my daily routine, this being germy really stinks!
I hope all of you are staying warm and safe, until next time...

Update on the Olive Oil Lamp

Hello friends, I am excited because I finally got the wick problems with the olive oil lamp worked out and can now share the instructions and the pic with you! It took some experimenting with different things and what I came up with is this: I took a paperclip and straightened it out then I wound it around a nail for most of its length and then made a larger circle at the base (I had to play with it to get it balanced enough to stand on its own.) so that I wound up with this:

next I took some cotton kitchen string and inserted it into the wire form like this:

next I got a wide short glass and using the wax melted in a tea candle poured a little bit in the center of the bottom of the glass and while it was still liquid positioned the wick form into it and let it set. Then I added a little wax on top of the arrangement and let it set again. Now I had this:

Then I added a small amount of water at the bottom of the glass, (it looks cloudy in the pic{below}, I’m not sure why it was clear water, and the blue streak {above}is not the glass but rather the lighting) then the olive oil, a couple drops of essential oil (be sure not to add more than a few drops or you may risk raising the fire danger if spilled) for aroma and lit it, so now I had this:

it had been burning for only a short time when I took the pic above but it continued to burn for quite some time.

This is one project that I can say I am glad I tried and worked out because the light produced is warm although not very bright, I am sure that could be helped a little by placing the lamp beside or on a mirror. The olive oil is much safer than other oils in that is will make a mess not a fire if spilled, and will burn without smoke or scent (unless you add the scented oil to the olive oil) or at least not a scent I could detect. It did smoke for a few seconds when I first lit the string until it reached the level of the oil and began to burn the oil vapor not just the cotton string.

 I think it will be easy to throw together now that I know how and will make a few of the wick forms to keep in a drawer so that if we lose power I can quickly and inexpensively make a little lamp like this to get us through. I always have plenty of olive oil and string in the kitchen and you can use a small glass, a wide mouth canning jar or other small clear jar you have saved to assemble the lamp with.

 I would love to know if any of you try this or find another solution to the wick issues (how to hold the wick in the oil without it sinking or falling over), and what you think of the idea.

Until next time I hope all of you are warm, safe and happy!

Bread and butter recipe

Hello friends, today has turned out to be a rainy, messy day. At least it is just rain, not the freezing rain or sleet that has been predicted for the last few days! However it has melted a lot of the snow that was on the ground and what is left is quickly turning into a wet mess of brown snow and mud. If it gets below freezing as usual tonight it will be a rough go for all who are on the roads. I am glad we don’t have to go anywhere.

Today is a bread baking day and as I posted yesterday here is the recipe I use, it is very easy even if you have never made homemade yeast bread, nutritious and very yummy! There is no kneading involved and if you make some those who taste it will surely ask for more!

2 ½ cups of warm water (warm like baby’s milk on your wrist, not hot)

2 tablespoons of dry yeast

3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 tablespoons Honey

5 ½ - 6 cups of flour (I use part whole wheat, part white)

1 ½ teaspoons of sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Add the oil and honey

Mix the flour and salt in separate large bowl. Add the liquids. Mix well with hands, adding a little more flour if needed.

Cover and let rise until double (about 1 ½ hours).

Punch down, divide in half and shape into 2 loaves. Place in oiled pans. Allow to rise again until nearly doubled.

Bake at 10 minutes at 400°. Reduce the heat to 350° and bake 20 minutes more. Cool on rack (or remove from pan and set it sideways on pan to cool if you don’t have racks)

As you know from earlier posts about the subject I have been slowly replacing the white flour with whole wheat flour to try to get my son used to the taste and hope to eventually make the switch complete.

Tonight on our fresh bread we will be having fresh butter as well since my son learned how to make butter from heavy whipping cream today, he made the craziest faces while he was shaking the jar but when it was done he tasted both the buttermilk we poured off the butter (we kept it for use later) and the butter and declared both delicious. This is another good project for young kids to do. In case you don’t know all we did was put some heavy whipping cream (the kind in the little milk-like carton in the dairy, not cool whip!!) in a clean, dry jar with a tight lid and shake it until in turns to butter. (depending on how hard you shake it about 10 minutes at most).

My son was fascinated that at first he could feel the cream sloshing around then he couldn’t, I opened the lid since the cream at this point was coating the inside of the jar and he couldn’t see inside, it was almost funny because he thought he did something wrong, then when I returned the lid and encouraged him to keep shaking it, in just a short time the butter formed into a lump in the jar and the buttermilk separated allowing him to again see inside the jar. He thinks it is some kind of magic!

At the bird feeder today we have two of the European Starlings fighting each other over the suet, and they are running all the little birds off so I am planning on putting a couple more suet feeder in the yard so there will be plenty for all.

Well that’s about it for now, I hope all of you are well and finding things to do with your family and friends. Until next time, be safe and be happy!

Making suet and other things

Hello friends, we had a pretty nice weekend here, the weather permitted a little travel so we went about 80 miles west to visit my mother and sister. My son got to play with his cousins and I got to share my latest endeavors, including the new blog! All went well and we got back home safe and sound yesterday afternoon. We went in town today to pick up supplies and groceries and now we are ready for whatever old man winter brings today. The weatherman seems a little confused, they are calling for snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain so it could potentially become a mess.

While my son took a nap I made some suet for our feathered friends and boy were they glad, they had eaten the last of the one put out Friday while we were gone. At the end of this entry you can find the recipe I use if you are interested. (one of the suggestions I got from friends and family over the weekend was to share my recipes)

For us I am making homemade chicken noodle soup, one of our favorite “comfort” foods. I made the noodles after making the bird food and it is drying while the chicken is boiling on the stove. Later I will de-bone the chicken and add all the goodies to the stock and let it simmer for a bit before adding the noodles.

Tomorrow is another bread baking day and I will post a recipe for my easy (no kneading) fresh bread. I will be increasing the amount of wheat flour so I am keeping my hopes high that my son won’t notice the difference and will keep on eating it!

I am still working on a easy fix for the olive oil lamp and will update when I find something that works well.

After my son wakes up we will be starting a simple salt crystal growing project and beginning our work on learning all about minerals. Tomorrow is pretty basic for him, Math and English so I try to break up the week and insert fun learning between days of basic academics. I have tried to convince him that Math and English can be fun too but so far he won’t buy it. He does love Science however so I try to sneak some Math in that way to reinforce his skills.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful day….enjoy and make the best of it until next time.

Recipe for making a yummy bird suet you can use while the weather is cold, it will melt in heat so don’t use for warm weather!

In a good sized bowl put 1 cup of shortening and 1 cup of peanut butter, melt in microwave. Everyone has a different size microwave, it only takes about a minute in mine. Then mix it well and add 3 cups of cornmeal, a handful or two of dried berries and enough bird seed to make it thick. Then turn out handfuls of the mix onto wax paper and form with your hand to the size of your suet feeder, I make mine about 4-5 inches square and get 4 cakes out of each batch. I wrap them in the wax paper and put into the freezer until needed. They can also be kept in the refrigerator.

You can also add things like oats or other grain or corn instead of the berries, I use whatever we happen to have on hand at the time. Our feathered friends will eat about one cake in two days or less if the ground is snow-covered, a little longer if not.

We get a lot of woodpeckers (downy and red-bellied) along with tufted tit mice and chickadees. We also had a few European starlings last week. We also have a couple of tube type feeders and get a few cardinals, finches and a couple of as yet unidentified birds eating from them.

Ramblings

Hello all, just another snowy day in our little neck o the woods. We have spent the last couple of days being lazy and  looking through the seed catalogs that came in. There are some very strange looking carrots in one of them, they have a lot of different colors, orange, yellow, purple and one that looked almost white. Although I am intrigued by the colors I wonder how they got that way, as my daughter said when I showed her and the grandbabies “that can’t be natural”! I am intrigued because I love colorful food. I enjoy things like stir fry’s because of all of the different colors. I also think maybe kids would eat more veggies if they looked more fun.

One of my favorite catalogs has quite a few organic seeds although they are by no means inexpensive, I think we will begin with them, and hopefully generate our own seeds for next year as well as good food!

In other news, I am starting to teach my son about minerals because next week we have a hands on science project that grow crystals. I think he will enjoy it, all except the waiting that is, however he will be able to make observations and  watch as what starts as a liquid mixture becomes beautiful crystals. Then later on this year when we go camping if we find geodes then he will have a little better understanding of how they became the rocks with a  surprise inside!

Tomorrow will be another bread baking day and since my son didn’t seem to notice that I added wheat flour to the usual white flour, (he doesn’t like whole wheat bread) ((yet))) I plan to substitute 2 cups of wheat flour and see how that goes over. If I do this and slowly raise the content of wheat vs white flour maybe I can get him used to the new taste. Sometimes it is hard with him to find a way to get him to try new tastes and textures. It seems that a lot of autistic kids have problems with this so I try to find ways to get him used to new things so that he doesn’t notice. I have had some luck doing this and I hope it continues to work. (his take on the muti-colored carrots was the expected ugh, that looks funny, I will only try a no thank you bite if you do that Mom…) I always have him take at least one bite of most foods whether he “likes” them or not because sometimes he finds that he does like them! Of course some things I know he really doesn’t like, or that causes him to be really upset I don’t force!

I hear we are expecting more snow over the weekend, don’t know how much, at this point it really doesn’t matter, I am getting pretty used to looking out and seeing all the snow and as long as I don’t have to go anywhere it’s not so bad, in fact, especially when it first snows (before it starts getting “dirty” it is rather pretty. I will try to get some pretty pics of the snow cover around us up here soon. Until next time I hope all of you are staying warm and enjoying the comfort of loved ones.

A Snowy Day

Not a lot going on around here, we got a good 5 inches of snow the other day and so we haven't done much other than hang around the house.
I did attempt the olive oil lamp today but didn't have much luck with the wick, I did get one to last a few seconds with one of the tea candle boats for the wick to float in however the "boat" sank after a very short time.

I also tried to bend up a paperclip, however it wasn't a very large one and it lasted for a little while but then the wick burned lower than the attached point on the wire and it fell into the oil and went out. It did do a nice job of burning clean and burning steady until the wick fell over. I will work on ideas to fix this and post more about it later. here is a pic of the one that worked the best:

as you can see I did add the layer of water on the bottom and then a thin layer of oil and not only did it work nice but it looked pretty cool too! I will have to check into maybe adding a touch of essential oil to the olive oil also.

In other news, we did finally get out of the house for a little while and went down to our neighbors house so my son could visit their bird, he loves to get the bird out and let it climb on his shoulder

I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the time they get to spend with family and friends.

Making Bread

Started today off on a rather sour note as we encountered a few problems that had to be worked out, got that done and while my son napped on the couch I made a simple bread dough that is currently rising in the kitchen. I love the smell of fresh yeast bread so later on the house should smell wonderful. I am making the usual 2 loaves of which I always give away one, this time I think to my friend Ray and his wife who have been immeasurable help since I moved back out here where I am.

I make a simple bread dough out of yeast, flour, olive oil, honey and sea salt that tastes wonderful and is dense enough to hold up to a good sandwich. I will probably make more on Wednesday and then continue every day or two so that we have a fresh supply of good bread without having to run in town and get store bought, chemically preserved bread.

My friend down the road, Martha has been making an egg run every few weeks to the farmers to get fresh eggs but we had all gotten a little slow using them of late and so this weeks run is postponed until next week. That is not a big issue, just more of a bother really but it makes me glad that the plans for my son and I include a few chickens, then we won’t have to depend on others to have a fresh supply of our own.

It seems the more I read about others living simply the more I look forward to the major changes in our lives. Knowing that we are providing for ourselves as much as we can is a feeling that you just can’t buy in the store.

It’s like eating the fresh baked bread out of our own oven, sure it took a little effort to make it, but in the end it smells, looks and tastes better than we could get elsewhere and the nutritional value is greater the more I switch to natural ingredients (like honey instead of sugar, and olive oil instead of vegetable oil)

So time for a winters afternoon nap, then punch down the dough and put in pans to rise again, and make the noodles for tonight’s chicken noodle soup. It is a good time for soup, it is cold and snowy outside and we are expecting a new snow storm to begin late tonight so homemade chicken noodle soup and fresh bread sounds like a winner to me.

I hope all of you are keeping warm and enjoying the day.

Till next time….

Olive Oil Lamps

I found the coolest DIY project that provides light at a fraction of the cost of candles or traditional oil lamps. Olive oil lamps, made using wide mouth canning jars are safer, since the flash point of olive oil means you are more likely to make a mess if the jar spills than you are to start a fire, and that is a wonderful advantage over other oil based lamps and candles alone!
Using a pint size canning jar, fill it with an inch or so of olive oil, float a wick and light. it is that easy. You can experiment with ways to float a wick and some folks like to add a layer of water in the jar before adding the oil, that ensures the flame will be put out when the fuel is exhausted.
There is a complete discussion and directions here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/Make-Olive-Oil-Lamp.aspx
I plan to try these out, as they look easy, economical and could come in really handy this spring when the storms knock out the power.
I will post pictures and info when I make them to share my own experiences, and I hope if you try this you will let me know how yours come out.
In other news, the garden planning is underway. I want at least two gardens outside, one for salad veggies and herbs and the other for veggies I want for my family.
There are so many decisions to make, this year is the first in a long while of gardening on a scale like this so I don't plan to have everything I hope to have in the coming years. I will start with the basics for me which are: sweet corn, tomatos, cucumbers, squash, peppers and green beans in the major garden and carrots, lettuce, cabbage, and turnips in the smaller garden with sage, oregano, basil and dill among the winners in the herb department. I am also planning to add garlic to the mix in the fall when I plant them for the first time, but that is a ways off.
As I look out at the yard and imagine the gardens growing, the chickens clucking and my son playing I am happy knowing that by doing some simple things like the ones here I can help us get healthier and reconnect with the land that we depend on to survive.

Getting Started

Today I decided to begin a blog to journal my way through the coming changes that are going to lead both my young son and I into a simpler lifestyle. By simple I mean a more basic lifestyle, uncluttered by the social norms that have led us all down the path to self-destrution far better than at anytime in our collective human history.
For the past several months I have been researhing and discovering ways to make us more self reliant. Such as in planning a garden to supply a lot of our vegtables and a small herb garden for seasonings and medicinal purposes. By doing this we are able to enjoy food that is healthier than what we can get at the store and we are not concerned with worry over which chemicals are in our food, or what may have been contaminated at a faceless factory set up that takes the connection to the food supply away for most folks.
We are also learning about keeping chickens, both for eggs and for meat. I am sure the first attempt at butchering our own meat will not be pleasent for me but I am determined to learn and to enjoy having our own fresh chicken on the table, knowing the bird had a good life and knowing what it ate and such.
There is going to be a lot of work ahead, it is easy to sit here and read about doing these things. I am hopefull that when the doing happens it will benefit me in ways more than just putting cleaner, fresher food on the table. I will benefit from the connectedness of working the land and raising the chickens and I can teach my boy how to be responsible for the same. He has enough challenges in life to deal with, learning how to take care of himself the best he can and see the outcome of his labor should be very educational and satisfying.
So come with me on my journey and let us learn some new (old) things together.