A Simple Prairie Life

I am off on Fridays which allows for lots of cleaning and kitchen time.  Today was no different.  In the morning while it was still cool and after morning chores were done I headed to our apple and crabapple trees to pick apples.  I have been dehydrating apples for use this winter (since we don’t have a cellar for storing them).  I’ve also made apple crisp twice and it is delicious.  It uses a lot of butter, however, so this may become an issue with our new project.

Once the apples were picked I vacuumed and steam cleaned our living room carpets using Sol.U.Mel from Melaleuca.  It looks wonderful!  It’s a concentrate, so I mixed it according to the directions, sprayed it on the carpet, let it set 15-20 minutes, and steamed cleaned away.  We have three dogs in and out of our house, so it gets pretty disgusting in this high traffic area.

While the carpet was drying I did two loads of laundry, down from the 4-5 I usually have to do, and this included our bedding.  I have been stressing the need to wear our work pants/jeans more than once if they are not visibly dirty or smelly.  Whew, what a difference one small change can make and there is only two of us.  I have also been using laundry detergent from Melaleuca.  I usually make my own detergent, but my mom wanted me to try this and bought me a bottle.  I may continue to use this on my towels and washclothes to keep them fresh smelling, but will probably continue to make my own detergent for cost purposes.  It is wonderful detergent though.

I made up a few batches of pesto from the basil in my herb garden and froze it to use up in the next couple months.  I don’t think it’s something that should be stored long term even in the freezer.

I also managed to take inventory of our food supply in order to know the next time around where we came up short and where we could have reduce our supply.  Someday I may not be able to run to the store on my lunchbreak and would like to know we could go a few months without grocery shopping since the nearest store is 50 miles away.

Just a quick tidbit on where we do our shopping while we are on the subject:

Walmart as LITTLE as humanly possible!!!

Local Farmer’s Markets

Locally owned and operated bulk food store and fresh produce market.

A small, local grocery store.

For odds and ends we try to shop our hometown first, next we go to smaller businesses in surrounding towns/cities, usually close to where we work.

Dinner: 

Stuffed Green Peppers (Farmer’s Market peppers, homemade ketchup from homegrown tomatoes, and local humanely-raised beef)

Coconut Chicken Soup (Nourshing Traditions recipe)

Refrigerator Pickles (cucumbers from the neighbors, peppers and onions from the Farmer’s Market)

Welcome to my “new” blog.  I have been blogging for a year or two now, but wanted to move my blog so I would have more freedom to post about all the things in my life.  As soon as I have time and figure out how to move everything over I will have all my archives here also. 

Here is a tiny window into our lives on a small farm on the prairie.  We aren’t your typical farmers or your typical 30-year-olds.  Our latest adventure is a test to see how long we can go without buying groceries.  I have stocked up the pantry, the freezer, and every other nook and cranny I could find.  So, join us while we experiment and trial and error in an attempt to live a more simplistic life and get off the financial treadmill.

I’m going to play catchup with some pictures now that my camera is reading my memory card again.

Here is a Hoosier cabinet passed along for my cousin.  It was my great grandma’s, and I’m excited to be the one to acquire it.

My latest library books!

What’s living under our house.  I call him our “Army Pig.”

One of the many moths that flutter around our four o’clocks.

More herbs for winter use.

A fun little home in Michigan on our way home from a wedding.

Me (left) and a friend, Sarah in Lawrence, Kansas.

Last night I was home alone while Randy was visiting the chiropractor for a back injury.  So, the critters and I decide (well, I decided they really had no choice) to do a photo shoot.  Here is what we came up with.

Ash playing ball.

Koal just being entirely too cute!

Thai, “on you mark, get set…..”

Rooster on the run!

One of our ewe lambs, Minnie, keeping cool by the stock tank.  We don’t name all our sheep, but this little girl was a bottle baby.

That pretty much sums up August for us.  The garden hasn’t been all that impressive.  Luckily, there is a farmer’s market right across the street from where I work (I’m headed there today).  So, I can stock up on fresh produce from other peoples good fortune.

Oh, and the fall weather came and went here.  We are back into the mid-upper nineties for the rest of the week.  It was good while it lasted.

Have a wonderful day!

We are on a mission to try to add eggs to our breakfast routine at least 3-4 mornings a week.  All I do is put some butter in a stainless steel skillet, crack open a couple of homegrown eggs, put the lid on the skillet, and cook on high for 1-2 minutes.  The whites should be done, but the yolks runny.  There is nothing in this world better than a free-range chicken egg.  Delicious!

I am also trying to get back into the habit of making out weekly menus.  Summer is a time when we kind of fall out of our routines, but fall is just around the corner.  Time for soups, stews, and baked goods in the oven.

Tomorrow is the farmer’s market (which will be coming to an end all too soon).  Randy and I discussed the need to stock up on some items to keep us going through the winter.  We are hoping to also buy some dried goods in bulk and see how long we can go without purchasing groceries again (other than our now bi-weekly instead of weekly trips to the dairy).  Our freezer is packed, but the pantry could still use a little work.  We hope to make it four months (would love to go six).  This is our first real attempt at doing this, so I think four months is sufficient.  I will try to post some pictures of food storage as I come up with some more places to stash food.  I’m patiently awaiting winter squash and pumpkins at the market to help us through the cold months.

I absolutely love fall.  It is my favorite time of year, and I can’t wait for it to get here.  Our days here in Kansas have been unseasonably cool, but so nice and refreshing. 

The sheep have all recovered from the drastic changes in weather and are now enjoying the cool temperatures as well.

Here is our menu for this week.  Hope we are able to stick to it!

We have been busy, busy on our little farm.  Our garden is doing just okay, and I opted out of much of a fall garden due to the weather.  It has been so cool and dreary here the past week or two.  Usually this time of year we are fighting triple digits and wind, but it’s only in the 80s for a high and 60s at night.  We love the weather, but being unseasonable it has its disadvantages.  Our garden isn’t producing very well and our sheep are getting sick due to the damp, cool weather.  I just had to run one of rams to the vet this morning and got a late start at work.  Hopefully we got him doctored early enough, but with sheep you just never know.  They’re a little tricky! 

I did make Kombucha tea and get my hummingbird feeder filled last night along with doctoring and injured ram lamb and giving our sick ram a shot of vitamin B complex.  Tonight we will start all three rams on alfalfa, a protein block, and vitamin c powder on their feed.  They need a boost before breeding season rolls around, and it will be here before we know it.

Our Rhode Island Reds are slowly but surely starting to lay eggs.  We have 16 remaining after a skunk got into our coop and killed 9 of them.  Randy buried tin 2 feet deep all the way around the outside, and we haven’t had a problem since.  We allowed the chickens out on the garden Sunday afternoon, but they put a nice dent in our tomato harvest and won’t be allowed out again.  The banties are great for just letting run loose on the garden.  They do minimal damage, are good foragers for grubs, and take care of all the bugs.  The Rhode Islands are bigger and apparently less careful around the vegetation because they demolish everything in their path to eat bugs.

We will just keep enjoying the cool weather while it lasts.