Around the Homestead

New Menu Plans…

Gretchen

I have decided if Randy and I are going to keep up with our evening chores we are going to have to make some changes to our evening meals.  Cooking from scratch is healthy and yummy and all of that good stuff, but it is also time consuming.  With both of us working full-time it’s going to take some doing to eat healthy and get everything done that needs to be done.

 

So, I am working up a menu plan, fairly general, to make our evenings more open to taking care of our animals (especially with baby chicks on the way).

 

Monday:  Crockpot

Tuesday:  Soup and Sandwiches (usually egg or grilled cheese)

Wednesday:  Crockpot new or leftovers (add tortillas, cornbread, etc.)

Thursday:  Grill (from the freezer) 

Friday:  This will be our big meal of the week because I am off on Fridays.  I also hope to do some cooking for the freezer so we have casseroles in the freezer to get us through the following week.

 

We will probably have to implement some rice and beans back into our menu to allow for some bulk cooking.

 

Our menu this week isn’t on track with this new menu plan, but here is what I have planned for the week.

 

Monday:  Egg (homegrown) sandwiches on homemade bread

Tuesday:  Link Sausage cooked over sweet potatoes and turnips in our cast iron skillet.

Wednesday:  Stir-Fry (bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, turnips, and sweet potatoes over brown rice).  The rice is soaking as we speak.

Thursday:  Pork chops on the grill and veggies of some sort.

Friday:  Roasted Chicken, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Turnips, and a salad.

 

Cook ahead:

Bierocks

Black Bean Chicken Chili

Chicken Tetrazinni

 

Hopefully I will get some tortillas made, but we’ll see how the day goes.  I also have a lot of housekeeping to do.  One day a week just doesn’t cut it when you are trying to cook for 4 days and clean for 7 days worth.

 

Hope everyone has a great week.

Animals

We must be crazy…

Gretchen

Pretty sure we have lost it. Yesterday we placed an order for more Rhode Island Red chicks. We had another one fly into the backyard (two total) to meet her end. We have debated on clipping their wings, putting chicken wire of the back of their yard, and some other ideas. We want them to be able roam free for a couple of reasons. The cost of feed would kill us if we had to feed them 100% of their food intake, the eggs are healthier due to their foraging, and it is healthier for our sheep when they forage and eat larvae so the sheep don’t pick it up. We will see what kind of winter project we come up with to keep the chickens and dogs separate. In the meantime we will be preparing to have babies on our farm once again. We have been roofing our house the past two weekends. I will post pictures once it is presentable. We did dark green shingles and they look so good. I love it! We had our first big freeze early Monday morning, so the tomatoes are history. It wasn’t the greatest gardening year, but financially we did just as well as the previous year (thanks to supply not meeting demand which enable us to raise our prices some). Now we are relying on our eggs for some cash flow. Not only is the number of hens slowly dwindling due to lack of brainpower, but the onset of winter and shorter days will begin to take its toll on the girls laying ability. By spring, if the girls stay out of the backyard, we should have a nice sized flock again and be able to meet the demand we suddenly have. Hope everyone is doing well. We are keeping busy and enjoying our little Eden Pure heater to keep us warm on these cold evenings. We still haven’t turned on our heat and with the price of propane hope to hold out awhile longer. We couldn’t make it without our little heater.

Animals

We must be crazy…more chickens?

Gretchen

Pretty sure we have lost it.  Yesterday we placed an order for more Rhode Island Red chicks.  We had another one fly into the backyard (two total) to meet her end.  We have debated on clipping their wings, putting chicken wire of the back of their yard, and some other ideas.  We want them to be able roam free for a couple of reasons.  The cost of feed would kill us if we had to feed them 100% of their food intake, the eggs are healthier due to their foraging, and it is healthier for our sheep when they forage and eat larvae so the sheep don’t pick it up.  We will see what kind of winter project we come up with to keep the chickens and dogs separate.  In the meantime we will be preparing to have babies on our farm once again.

We have been roofing our house the past two weekends.  I will post pictures once it is presentable.  We did dark green shingles and they look so good.  I love it!

We had our first big freeze early Monday morning, so the tomatoes are history.  It wasn’t the greatest gardening year, but financially we did just as well as the previous year (thanks to supply not meeting demand which enable us to raise our prices some).  Now we are relying on our eggs for some cash flow.  Not only is the number of hens slowly dwindling due to lack of brainpower, but the onset of winter and shorter days will begin to take its toll on the girls laying ability.  By spring, if the girls stay out of the backyard, we should have a nice sized flock again and be able to meet the demand we suddenly have.

Hope everyone is doing well.  We are keeping busy and enjoying our little EdenPure heater to keep us warm on these cold evenings.  We still haven’t turned on our heat and with the price of propane hope to hold out awhile longer.  We couldn’t make it without our little heater.

Adoption

We’re working on it…

Gretchen

Okay, so we didn’t get as much accomplished last night as I would have liked too, but our evenings are just too short.  We are mostly waiting on others to complete forms and mail back to us.  Our physical/health exam will hopefully be the last thing (possibly the I600A).  We hope to wrap up everything on our end over the weekend and get the pictures developed or copied next week.  Below is an updated list of what is complete or where we are at on things:

Dossier To-Do List:

1.  Photos

*6 reflect family life

*1 of us together

*1 of Randy

*1 of Me

*6-8 of the interior and exterior of our home

2.  Passport Photos

3.  Letter of Intent to Adopt

4.  Dossier Family Profile Summary Form

5.  Police Clearances

6.  Marriage Certificate

7.  Birth Certificates of Applicants

8.  Home study

9.  Health Examination

10.  Physical Assessment

11.  Psychological Assessment

12.  Employment Letter-waiting on information

13.  Financial Statement

14.  Taxes (most recent 1040 federal tax form)

15.  Bank Statement-will have to be done immediately before sending of dossier as it has to be current

16.  Copy of CIS Approval, or I171H-need more info from agency/social worker

17.  Photocopies of Passports

18.  Resume

19.  Reference Declarations-mailed yesterday

20.  Post-Adoption Agreement

21.  Guardianship Designation-we will go over this with family this weekend

22.  Guardianship Statement-we will go over this with family this weekend

 

 

Adoption

Dossier Checklist…

Gretchen

1.            Photos

*6 reflect family life

*1 of us together

*1 of Randy

*1 of Me

*6-8 of the interior and exterior of our home

2.  Passport Photos

3.  Letter of Intent to Adopt

4.  Dossier Family Profile Summary Form

5.  Police Clearances

6.  Marriage Certificate

7.  Birth Certificates of Applicants

8.  Home study

9.  Health Examination

10.  Physical Assessment

11.  Psychological Assessment

12.  Employment Letter

13.  Financial Statement

17.  Taxes (most recent 1040 federal tax form)

18.  Bank Statement

19.  Copy of CIS Approval, or I171H

20.  Photocopies of Passports

21.  Resume

22.  Reference Declarations

23.  Post-Adoption Agreement

24.  Guardianship Designation

25.  Guardianship Statement

Below is what I have completed so far (they aren’t notarized, but we will do almost all the notarizing at one time):

1.            Photos

*6 reflect family life

*1 of us together

*1 of Randy

*1 of Me

*6-8 of the interior and exterior of our home

2.  Passport Photos

3.  Letter of Intent to Adopt

4.  Dossier Family Profile Summary Form

5.  Police Clearances

6.  Marriage Certificate

7.  Birth Certificates of Applicants

8.  Home study

9.  Health Examination-scheduled for Nov. 19th

10.  Physical Assessment-scheduled for Nov. 19th

11.  Psychological Assessment-scheduled for Nov. 19th

12.  Employment Letter

13.  Financial Statement

17.  Taxes (most recent 1040 federal tax form)

18.  Bank Statement

19.  Copy of CIS Approval, or I171H

20.  Photocopies of Passports

21.  Resume

22.  Reference Declarations-mailed

23.  Post-Adoption Agreement

24.  Guardianship Designation

25.  Guardianship Statement

We will hopefully have a lot more crossed off tomorrow.

Adoption

Adoption To-Do List…

Gretchen

Yesterday we received all the information we need to collect for our adoption in order have our home study (where the social worker comes to the house) completed.

 

This list is long, but manageable.  Thanksgiving is my goal which I think is reasonable.  The only thing that probably won’t be complete by then is the background check (I600A/I171H).

 

Let the collecting begin!

Adoption

Application, Emails, and Phone Calls…

Gretchen

Randy and I have taken a leap of faith.  A couple of weeks ago we sent in our application for adoption.  We have been discussing this for over a year now.  It was a really difficult decision for us to make.  The economy is scary, life is scary, and eventually it just boiled down to having a little faith. 

Choosing an agency and choosing a country were one in the same.  We wanted an agency who worked in Kansas, but we also wanted certain elements from the program itself.  Our first country of choice was the ever popular China.  We new the wait time was long, but 4 years?  We considered an older child adoption from China, but some of the requirements were a little questionable for us.  I was and still am very drawn to Ethiopia.  I knew I wanted to adopt from a country with a great need, and Ethiopia definitely qualified.  Cambodia-closed, Vietnam-closed, Burma-impossible.  We went through them all, country by country.  We discussed all the rules, regulations, requirements, wait times.  We finally chose an agency, discussed all the countries most recent information and decided on Korea.  Whew, done…..wait, not done.  Pilot program for Nepal?  Hmmm, that sounds interesting.  Google…Nepal.  I had made my decision the minute the first site opened.  Now to convince my wonderful husband to once again change our plans.  The beauty of Korea (for Randy) was we didn’t have to travel there.  With all the livestock, I have no vacation, and he has minimal vacation, this was a big deal.  Three weeks in Nepal was going to take some doing, but in the end he agreed.  I called the agency, had our application changed, and last night received the phone call welcoming us to the Nepal program with Holt International. 

They stressed that this is a pilot program, there are many unknowns, and will we be up for the challenge.  I told the lady I hoped so.

Now we wait for our list of papers and forms to complete and return so we can schedule our homestudy.  We have already collected as much as we could ahead of time (birth certificates, marriage license, etc.).  We want to complete the homestudy as quickly as possible and all the paper work must be completed first.  So, this will be the focus as soon as we get the information  we need to begin.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Uncategorized

Farmer’s Market…

Gretchen

I have been doing a little competition with myself.  I am trying to not buy groceries for the rest of the years (4 mos.).  I have a few stipulations such as:

I can buy meat from our neighbor (a butcher) if any comes available (deer season).

I can also buy pumpkins from the farmer’s market.

Lastly, I can buy fruit (oranges, apples, and grapefruit) from the FFA (Future Farmers of America) kids when they sell it in Nov/Dec.

Well, I cheated.  I went to the farmer’s market yesterday and bought:

lettuce

green onions

bell peppers

okra

and bison liver

I couldn’t help myself.  I have been wanting salad and okrafor so long.  My lettuce died, my okra is producing about 2 a week, and I have no self control.  Hey, it’s not like I ran to Walmart and bought a family-sized bag of Snickers or something.

Dinner last night was:

Chili with local beef and venison

a fresh, local salad (some of which was home grown)

and okra cooked in bacon grease

It was delicious!

I would call it a complete failure, but I am going to try to do better in the future and fight off those craving for fresh veggies, haha!