Yah Willin', If The Creek Don't Rise

I thought I would share a funny story with you that was shared with me, by a dear friend of mine.  (You can see them in our Memorizing Scripture Section - as they have done the Het and Lamed Portions of Psalm 119!) They live on a rural property that requires crossing a river to enter and exit.  This is acually fairly common in our community - as many of us our homesteading.   (Another family in our community had their collection system washed away inthis same storm on their off grid farm!  Last year, We got stuck crossing yet another family's creek trying to enter their property in our 15 passenger van one (cold water) winter day.  Their team of work horses pulled us out that day!)  Anyway, last week we had a series or stormy days in succession.  When you live on a property like that - your freedom and flexibility is subject to the condition of the river that you must cross.  You learn quickly to "step in time" with Creation and your Creator when living this way. We meet at this family's home once a month for Shabbat Fellowship, "Ya willin', if the creek don't rise". The Pappa (Gary) of this family travels to work daily "Yah willin', if the creek don't rise" (but if it does he works from home remotely).  It's a different way of life - but they wouldn't trade it for anything, because they know it is what Yah has called their family to do.

The following is the tale of this last storm, as written my "the momma" (Nancy) as she needed to get in and out of the property during a storm to pick up a very important package that could not wait.  She wrote this in response to friends who were inquiring as to their condition during the storm - to see if they needed anything. (I share it with permission of course!)

We had ordered some baby chicks through the mail and knew that when they came in we'd need to get them from the post office right away and get them under the heat-lamp setup we'd made for them. Well, this morning at 8:00 -- after rain had been pouring for a couple of hours -- I got the call from the postman that the chicks had arrived. Knowing I didn't have much time to get them before the creek might be too high to cross, I grabbed the boys and we all jumped in the van to get the chicks. We had to go across town to the co-op to get some feed and supplies before getting the chicks, and when we got back to Green Acres, the creek was too high for the van to go back across.

After consulting with Gary and deciding that the back-road-route was not an option, the boys and I took to the trail on foot. We wrapped the chick-box in the wool sweater I'd been wearing and charged Jonathan with the safe transport of the chicks. Chris shouldered the fairly heavy block of wood shavings we needed for them, and I toted the bag of chick feed along with my purse (which some of you know is the heaviest item of the lot, mind you.) We all then started on the approx. 1-mile trek that would get us home without having to swim the creek. In a heavy rain that had us drenched not long after we left the car, we walked up the road, down the railroad tracks, across the creek via the railroad bridge, down the steep, muddy railroad embankment, across/through a swollen side creek, and through the woods toward home. We were all quite a site. My denim skirt was hilarious -- like wearing a wet bedspread. I have to say I'm proud of my boys, as they joined in with good spirits.  We trekked along singing songs like, "Detour, There's a Muddy Road Ahead," making a grand adventure of our wet journey. We finally arrived home safely with the chicks, who seemed none the worse for the soggy wear, and we got them all settled in just fine.  They are living in luxury in Granny's bathtub, thanks to her generous and venturesome spirit.  '-)

Meanwhile, Gary had decided he'd better head home while he still had a chance of crossing the creek. Not long before he got home we all saw Shalu (The Family Dog - Pyraneese ) standing on the other side of the creek, unsure of how to get home.  Gary was able to join up with her and take her with him in the truck. He soon found out, though, that all road route options were "out" for his truck as well, and he and Shalu had to take to the trail on foot like we'd had to do. They chose to go a different route, though, hoping to avoid having to cross the swollen side creek the boys and I had had to cross. Little did they know, though, that their choice was even more challenging. Their route took them to the bridge down-road from us that crosses Mill Creek, but that bridge had already begun to be covered with water, and water had flooded around the bridge as well, causing rather deep spots on either side. Long story, but picture Gary -- in his khakis and zero-tread dress shoes -- wading across hip-high water with one hand on Shalu's collar and one hand holding his laptop up high to keep it out of the water. I don't know if Shalu has ever swum before, but if not she has now. Gary said she seemed to know he was there to help, and she trusted his encouragement to swim along with him.

Well, the two of them made it back safe and sound. We've all now been dried, hot-chocolated, and souped and are relishing a cozy afternoon in a warm, dry house. Our "16 head of livestock" (as Gary likes to put it) are snug and happy as well, and we are all thankful for the safety and memorable moments Yah provided for us today. Thanks for checking in on us, Luci. We pray you are all fairing well with the weather. We will look forward to seeing you all soon "Yah willin' and if the creek don't rise!"

Love,
Nancy  

GMO - Genetically Modified Organisms

I can not stress enough how important it is that we educate ourselves on the reality about GMO Foods within our midst. The presence is growing quickly and if we do not take a stand our health, economy and entire food system will be turned upside down beyond repair. This is so very very very serious. This applies to everyone of us..if you eat..it matters to you! Your quality of life and those around WILL be effected if you do not ignore this topic. The following is a trailer to a very INFORMATIVE trailer of a documentary that explains and shows the scope and magnitude of the importance with GMO Food right now. http://geneticroulettemovie.com/ You may watch the full length movie online for a donation of 2.99. You may also purchase the DVD to share with others.

 

Here is another link to a study on GMO foods and their effects.  But this is just s very small picture.

I have been passionate about the food we eat for over 20 years. However, I have not shared many resources here on the blog. I hope to do more of that, because I have been watching the food system slip into crisis for years and years. It is a slippery slope to disease, death and pore quality of life that is ONLY there for 2 reasons:

 1. Because of greed on the parts of those who are implementing it.
 2. Because of the ignorance or complacency on the part of those who are consuming it.

 If we are not taking specific and diligent steps against this - we are acting in one of the two roles that contribute to it.

It is very sad that even this most simplistic of things such as food has become so corrupt - but the truth of the matter is that it HAS! Everyone needs to take heed to this. A message to women and mothers - While some husbands/fathers may contribute to this - YOU are the most responsible for what gets served at your table and sent in your lunchboxes. You are responsible for setting the example and the standard. Please educate yourself on what you are putting into your children's mouths. The allergies, food in-tolerances, hormone imbalances, birth defects, autism, miscarriages, immune disorders, and many many many related diseases we are seeing are no co-incidence. They are the result of changes in our world that have happened rapidly..we are poisoning ourselves. IF we WAKE UP and respond..it does not have to continue. We CAN make a difference! (Please - watch the video above!)

Solutions:
1. Get educated.  You must know what the problem is - if you hope to fix it.
2. Learn to prepare and enjoy whole foods! Turn away from prepared packaged foods.
3. Buy local food from local farmers.  Interview them, learn how they grow it.  Support them and buy their food so that they will be able to support their families and you may eat well! This also builds sustainable communities in a myriad of ways!
4.  Find (or START!) local co-ops to help bring good food to families at more reasonable prices that families can afford!

For foods that you still need to purchase from "stores". Here are some resources to help you find food that has NOT been Genetically Modified:

• True Food Shoppers Guide
• Non GMO Food Shopping Guide
• Non profit non-GMO certification project
• A great blog article (and a great blog) : http://nourishedkitchen.com/gmo-free-food/

Here are some links to some GMO and Real Food Watchdogs so that you may get and stay informed:

• Say NO to GMO
• GMO Compass
• Natural News
• Institute for Responsible Technology
• Weston A Price Foundation

This post has been shared at the Homestead Barn Hop

A Little Tour of our Farm

I just opened a new page - to give a little tour of our farm.
I would like to update it modify it as it grows, eventually with videos and lots and lots of picture.  So be sure to check back on it from time to time.  :-)

Beat the Heat

In the Spring time every year, we start shifting gears into "beat the heat" mode.  We choose to live without AC and change our habits with the weather.  These are some of the things we make it a point to do differently and they all make a difference!

• We make sure to turn all lights off in the day time.  They produce heat!  Some more than others.  The ones over my bathroom mirror get particularly hot.  So I will even remove those bulbs in the heat of the summer and just stick with the overhead light!  Likewise we have track lighting over one of the kitchen counters.  When it is cooler, you don't notice the heat when they emit, but when it warms up...man...you really feel every little thing that contributes to it!  We still have some refrigeration that generates a GOOD BIT of heat from it's compressors.  It is out goal to run electric out to our shed to house them out there next year.  
• All of our cooking is moved outside.  We have done different things in different years..working within our means.  This is year is our most deluxe version yet!  We have moved our summer kitchen into our new pump house!  I have water from our well (YES!!) and I can shut the doors on it (which keeps curious cats and critters away while things are baking).  Although we hope to build  specific summer kitchen in a different location when we can...that will likely not happen for a couple years because of other priorities.   The location is not ideal and we can not shade it because it has solar panels on the south side to run the water pump.  It is also on the small inside (10x10) but we do have high ceilings and some vents.  We plan to increase the vent on top though, by adding  one of those "spinning "chef hat" vents.  (As I like to all them.)  :-) When we build our summer kitchen it will be bigger, shaded, screened and will use wood to cook with.  But I am soooo thankful for the pump house in the interim! Cooking outside at the back of the house is cool - but dirty because of the trees that cool it.  Cooking on the front porch gets warm and give me aesthetic twitches.  :-) So I love that I can "close the doors" on the pump house!  We use propane for our cooking fuel source (the portable tanks you hook up to a grill).  DH has run a couple heavy duty extension cords out there for me to run portable ovens and crock pots as well.  This is not ideal to have extension chords running - but it is fine compromise for now!!  Here are some photos

Here is our pump house/ summer kitchen.  It was Amish built by a friend up the road.

This stove is not operating right now, but we hope to replace it soon!  There is my running water and stainless counter/table.  The portable ovens are what I use until we get the big one replaced.

  

I have put up two retractable clothes lines - that give me 100  lineir feet of drying space.  It is the perfect place to  dry herbs or hang clothes when it it raining.

Here's the old faithful camp chef., it is my original canning, camping and  summer kitchen stove.  She has served me well for several years and still does.

• We also change what we eat this time of year.  In the cooler months we LOVE homemade soups and stews and breads and eat them regularly.  However, this time of year that ceases.  We bake much less and eat a lot more raw.  We do more on the grill and find ourselves eating more flat breads.
• We have also learned to eat outside under our shade tree that covers the back porch.  Even when it is very hot Yah seems to provide us with a breeze bath there!  (He is SO good!)  We have learned that bringing hot cooked foods in for 8+ people, also generate heat...and heat lingers. So eating outside helps with that too!
• We have learned to work with our windows.  What a difference it makes to shade the windows! We have build a porch roof on the south side of our house (which is the front). What a difference this made with the heat before and after!! We don't usually have to shut the blind on these windows.  Which is good, because we need the natural light int he house so we can keep the lights turned off!  :-)  In the morning we are deliberate to shade the eastern windows and let the cool breeze flow in the Western side.  Likewise, in the afternoon, we shade the western side and open up the eastern.  The north side is always left open.  Cross breeze and airflow is essential!  We also installed ceiling fans when we added the second floor we use window fans when we can.  
• We have been holding off on planting trees on the south side because of the work that needed to be done and making decisions to put in the driveway and some excavation for water flow...but I think we have come to clear line of site regarding these things and we plan to put (fast growing) shade trees on the Southwest corner and South side of the house this fall.  I am SOO excited about this - because I know this will make a huge difference and lesson our reliance on the fans.
• Laundry is also dried outside (ONLY!).  I still use my washer, but hang everything.  Check out my new homemade clothes pin bag.  I love it!  I tie it on and have my clips at my waste. It is SO handy and kinda cute too.  :-)

• We have also learned quite a few things about working in the heat that have been helpful.
• I used to think that keeping cool meant as little clothing as possible.  This became a conflict when we decided to dress modestly as a lifestyle.  But we have all found that by wearing lightweight natural fibers - that we are just fine!
• My homemade deodorant is also nothing short of amazing.  I have used natural deodorants for 20 years but they always "fell short".  The one I have been making and using for the past 4 years has been put to the test for sure (by many homesteaders actually) and found to out sniff them all!!  :-)

This post was shared at Simple Lives Thursdays

Shalom Farm's Homemade Corned Beef (from Scratch!)

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Andi.  I promised her to post this way back at Pesach (Passover) when I served it during their visit and here it is a couple days after Shavuot (Pentacost), some 50 days later and I am finally posting it!!!  I am SO thankful for and blessed with patient and merciful friends!

I love corned beef!  It is delicious over mashed potatoes or served with fried potatoes and eggs for a hardy farm breakfast.  Creamed chipped beef over toast is outstanding!  Small bits of left overs add a flavorful punch to rice casseroles and really helps stretch meals for a crowd because it offers so much flavor. If the roast is sliced thinly and used to make homemade Rueban sandwich with homemade raw sauerkraut and fresh Soaked Whole Wheat Anything Bread!  AHH MAN!!!  That's good eats.  There are corned beef dips and soups and cornedbeef and cabbage and Oh...I'm craving it as I type!

Since we started buying our meat directly from farmers about 12 years ago...my opportunity for corned beef quickly diminished.  I realized it was something I was going to have to learn to make from scratch if it was ever going to dawn our table again and every time I hunted for recipes to use, I came up with "prepared" corned-beef recipes.  In other words , recipes on what to do with beef that had already been corned by the "factory".  Well, a couple years ago, when I was pregnant with my last baby I craved it so bad, I caved in and bought Hormel canned corned beef hash!!!  Yikes!  I pledged on that dark day (tee hee) that after I had my baby (because I was too sick to do it then), I was going to figure this out!  And I did!  I now have two fabulous methods of corning beef, a dry method and a wet one.  Both are very good.  I have made several "comparison" batches to narrow it down to which one I might like better between my last to "finalists", and I simply can not choose.  However, the method is quite different, so I decided to record and keep both of my methods in our family cookbook, so I could always have an option to choose.  One requires a little more doing before curing and the other a little more doing after. One also takes a little longer to cure than the other.  So it is nice to use the methods that best fits my needs at the time.

I have not stored it this way long term without freezer/refrigeration...because I never had the nerve to "risk it", even though I have corned as much as 40lbs at once!  (You think I might be willing to spare a couple pounds!  But it was just too good and it's been so long!) :-)  Anyway, when that day comes (and it will!)  I will use my wet method for storing it without refrigeration.  This is the old fashioned way of preserving my meat without electricity.  In the old days (unless it was smoked, salted, dehydrated or submerged in a vat of animal fat) it would be submerged and weighted down in the salt corning brine in wooden barrels then covered and kept in a root cellar instead of a refrigerator and it would be kept for 6-9 month that way.  One day...I'll do it and tell you how it went!  I will likely use a 5 gallon bucket.  Right now, beef is scarce for us...so  it will have to wait.

Oh...and by the way speaking of dehydrating, we experimented with the corned beef and made Corned Beef Jerky out of it:  It was  a HIT!  So you might want to try that too!

Shalom Farm's Dry Rub Corned Beef


4-6 pound beef roast (I have used many different cuts, but Brisket is traditional)

THE RUB:
1/2C sea salt
1T black peppercorns, freshly cracked
3/4T ground all spice
1T dried thyme
1/2T paprika
2 bay leaves, crumbled or diced

1.  Mix the rub together in a small bowl.
2.  Spear the meat all over the roast about 30-40 times with a fork or skewer or pointy knife.
3.  Rub each side very generously with "the rub", covering thickly and completely.
4.  Put in a 2 gallon Ziplock bag.  Squeeze out as much air as possible.
5.  Lay it flat inside a pan and next another pan on top of that and weight it down with something heavy to press the roast.  Put in the fridge for 5-7 days.  Flip once a day (if you remember!  Sometimes I forget!)

** When ready to cook:  Rinse and soak the meat in cold water for a couple of hours changing the water to fresh cold water every 30 minutes or so.  You should rinse and soak the roast for 4-6 cycles.  This is very important.  I failed to do this well once and it was so very  very salty, that it ruined the meal.  :-(

You may cook your corned beef as usual ( you find lots of recipes for that part online if need be). If you want to prepared your corned beef ahead, you can also rinse it well then freeze it and pull it out and cook it usual when you ready.  This is ideal when you get a lot of meat all at once form the farm and you a lot a certain amount amount of it to be corned.  You do it all at once and pull it out of the freezer ready to go!  You can also dehydrate it like any other seasoned beef jerky.


Shalom Farms Corned Beef -Wet Method


4-6 pound beef roast (I have used many different cuts, but Brisket is traditional)

THE BRINE:

2 qrts of clean filtered water
1C sea salt
1/2 C Rapedura or Sucanut or sugar of choice
1 (2-3inch stick) of cinnamon, broken into pieces
1 tsp whole mustard seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
8 whole cloves of garlic
8 whole all spice berries
12 juniper berries
2 bay leaves, crumbled or diced
1/2 tsp ginger powder

1.  Put all the ingredients for the brine together in a large soup pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Let cool COMPLETELY and chill in the fridge until it reaches "fridge cold" (about 45 degrees).  (You may also do by letting the brine cool and then putting the pot in a sink full of ice to chill it.)

2.  Once the brine is chilled, put the roast in a 2 gallon Ziplock bag* and pour the brine over.  Get as much as the air out as possible and seal well.  Lay it in a flat dish and refrigerate for at least 10 days.  Check daily to be sure the roast is still submerged under the brine.  You may add cold water if needed.

Take out of the brine and cook as usual.  (No rinsing needed.)

* You may also do this in a bowl or 1-2 gallon bucket, then put a clean plate on top (that will fit inside the bowl) and put a weight on the plate to submerge the plate and roast under the brine.  Then be sure to cover the bowl tightly with plastic rap or lid.

You Know You're a Homesteader When...............

You know your a homesteader when....you walk into a store (on a warm bright sunny day) with all six children and it is only then, that you notice that they all have rubber boots on (Including the girl's in dresses!) and you are are wearing New Balance sneakers and an apron with your long jean skirt ... and you don't care.  :-)


When did YOU "know you were a homesteader when...."  ???  I would love to hear your comments!

This post was shared at Homestead Barn Hop

You Know You're a Homesteader When..................

You know you are homesteader when....your trip to town went later than expected and you find yourself taking the clothes off the line in the pitch dark, while wearing a head lamp.


When did YOU "know you were a homesteader when...."  ???  I would love to hear your comments!

Champis the Sheep Herding Rabbit

I thought I would share this with my fellow shepards. We got a kick out of it (especially the kids)and we thought you would too. You can go to the blog listed at the end. It is not in English, but there is a "translate" button up in the right hand corner. If you hit it, will translate it all into English for you.






This post was shared at Homestead Barn Hop

Our Root Cellar- Can you dig it?

Building our root-cellar was easy! (Ha ha) Just follow these simple steps:

1) Dig a hole. Our hole was 10 feet deep, 30 feet long, and 15 feet wide. It helps to have a neighbor who excavates part-time.

2) Prepare your foundation. We will have two separate rooms: a cold room and a wet room. The wet room will keep the earthen floor, and the cold room will be concrete.

3) Pour the foundation. Have some Amish people help, since they work cheap and don't mind wading in wet cement. Since they don't like getting their pictures taken, wait till they bend over.
4) Build your walls. The final height will be 9 feet, and end just above the final ground level. Note the PVC vent pipes at either end of the structure. Those will suck in outside air and bring it in to the ground level of the root cellar, since it goes through the cool ground it arrives quite cold. There will be vents in the ceiling of the cellar to vent the warmer air, thus facilitating constant circulation.

5) We capped our walls with 1 inch thick wood to support the roof, which in our case will double as another storage building. Note the vent pipe protruding past the ground level.

6) Find some small folks to handle the hardest work. Here are three of our non-union workers digging a trench for our sump pump drain.

7) Have a local Amish builder make a wonderful 12 x 32 wooden shed and have it delivered for next-to-nothing. It fit perfectly on the foundation and with some insulation and some caulk it makes a perfect roof. I secured it with "hurricane straps" to make it one with the foundation.

8) Add exterior doors at the top of your stairs. These doors and the stair "stringers" are made by Bilco. Very good quality doors, but the installation directions are horrible. These doors were 25% of the cost of the entire root cellar budget (not including the cool Amish shed).

9) Put a cool homemade (Amish) door on both the entrance to your cold room and your wet room, to keep the cold air trapped in the cellar. It makes you feel "all old fashioned" every time you go to get something from your root cellar. This one locks from the inside, but that was an oversight. :-)

10) Install your shelving. Don't use pressure treated wood, due to the off-gassing of poisons. These shelves are 2 feet deep and go up as high as possible. We have spaced the bottom to fit 5 gallon buckets (2 deep) on the floor, gallon and half gallon jars on the bottom shelf and the rest to fit Quart Jars. This have given us A LOT of shelf space. We will post pictures of the full cellar if we can afford the food to fill it with after all this fresh expense! For now, we'll have to be happy with 4 tube of left-over caulk and a set of ratchet wrenches.

We insulated the roof and doors with the silvery looking insulator board. It doesn't look very old fashioned, but it does the job (we hope) and acts as a nice reflector for our lanterns, which is how we have chosen to do our lighting downs stairs..,and that is pretty old fashioned...right?? :-)

Oh look.... my wife practically filled the root cellar in the time it took me to write this post! Hmmmmm. surprised? She says she's not finished yet.



We put all the shelves and barrels a minimum of 6 inches away from the wall. This creates the much needed airflow in a root cellar (according to the books!). The picture above is in our dry room. The barrles mentioned are on the opposite wall of the shelves (so no pix). We found several used 55 gallon plastic drums with two piece screw on lids used to import olives. They were about $15 each. SCORE! Things you will find in this room are, canned goods, grains, beans, onions, etc. We hope to add a shelf above the barrels if we need it for more storage space.

11) At the end is our wet room. Here we have laid stone on our earthen floor and installed a sump pump....just in case. This is our first underground structure on the property. Even though this is high ground, we have lots of springs and did not know what to expect; so we thought "better safe than sorry". We actually added water to this floor to increase the moisture in here. This room will house the root veggies that like it more damp and cold, like potatoes, beets, carrots, etc. As you can see...we have a good bit to go in this department because this reflect our ability to GROW these things...we have a lot of work to do on our soil...but THAT is another post!



The outside still needs paint, gutters and we plan to put a lean-too on each side with cement slabs. One side will hold our wood. The other side will be an out door work area for butchering and drilling and sawing. It may also be where next year's summer kitchen will reside, at least for next year. The front will have a little porch, permanent step and slab and porch roof. The inside still needs to be insulated and have electric run. (Use it while ya got it!) Half of it will be a small workshop, the other half, more kitchen supplies, empty jars, dry food storage, etc.

We are on our way! We hope you enjoyed the tour.

** What some people might not realize is that a root cellar is really only seasonal storage for many things; at least your freshest of foods. The temperature will raise and lower with the temperature out side, it just has the insulation of the earth to moderate it. So in the winter it is at it's coldest, in the fall it is lowering in temperature as it gets colder. In the Spring its temperature slowly raises (much slower than out doors, but it still does). In the summer it is a like being in a well shaded place, but there is no breeze. We noticed this August (Our first full month of having the root cellar). Our weather started to change (which SEEMED early). We started having cool nights and some breezy days, between hot days. On these breezy days, it was actually cooler outside in the shade with a breeze than it was in the root cellar! There is a good amount of humidity down there and it was cool, but clammy - upstairs in the shade it was not clammy, because of the breeze. We found that quite interesting. So much so, that I have decided to turn this into a year's weather monitoring project. We now have a thermometer with humidity gauge in both rooms of our root cellar and will add one to the outside wall at the entrance. I hope to record the temperate in both rooms, and outside, 2 times a month for the next year to see how it compares and observe the patterns. Those weird Home-schoolers... they never can pass up a good opportunity to learn something! :-)

Working in the Heat

Our first approach to working in the extreme heat- is NOT TO if we can help it. That is not always possible on a farm whose demands are many. However, we try to get started early, take breaks in the middle of the day and go back after about or 4 or 5 until dark. With the long summer days, we still get a lot of work done - but we don't put ourselves at risk doing it. Even then - it is still hot in Southern Middle TN.

This is a little trick my Momma taught me a while back:
You take a hand towel and drench it in very very cold water, ring it out and then lay it across the back of your neck bring it in front over your shoulders. It is amazing how it helps cool and refresh you! As the sun blazes so does the coolness fade from the cloth. So one of things I have learned to do is to have a small cooler with cold (even iced) water or peppermint tea in it in our work area. Every so often you can recharge your towel by dipping it in the cooler and wringing it out and reapplying. Wipe yourself down with it is also quite refreshing. The peppermint is especially cooling, as it effect last longer than the water. You can also just hang the towel on your head - not as attractive I know...but hey, working in the heat "ain't pretty". :-)

When I was in at the orphanage in Haiti, an older lady told me how they beat the heat and that is by taking a cool cloth and wiping behind the knees, in the bend of the elbows and around the neck and face and lastly on the bottoms of the feet if possible. This was how they would comfort the children and work at lowering/controlling fevers in the orphanage too.

It works! Ladies, remember to do this for your men (and boys)...they will LOVE you for it!

Stay cool!

This post was shared at the Barn Hop

Home, Sweet Home! (Poem)

Home, Sweet Home
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!
The birds singing gayly, that come at my call --
Give me them -- and the peace of mind, dearer than all!
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

I gaze on the moon as I tread the drear wild,
And feel that my mother now thinks of her child,
As she looks on that moon from our own cottage door
Thro' the woodbine, whose fragrance shall cheer me no more.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile,
And the caress of a mother to soothe and beguile!
Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam,
But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;
The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;
No more from that cottage again will I roam;
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
Home, home, sweet, sweet, home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!


John Howard Payne, 1822

Song ~ Stay at Home (Poem)

Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best.

Weary and homesick and distressed,
They wander east, they wander west,
And are baffled and beaten and blown about
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;
To stay at home is best.

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;
The bird is safest in its nest;
O'er all that flutter their wings and fly
A hawk is hovering in the sky;
To stay at home is best.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1878

This is one of my favorite poems - ever! Yah revealed it to me when He was training me to Keep my Heart at Home.

Amish Pest Control - for "all bugs"

When chatting with Mary, an Amish lady who has a nursery on her farm; I was given a little tip, on natural bug control for our garden plants. Since she has been successfully gardening/farming without chemicals as a lifestyle for longer than I could imagine...my attention was glued to her every word. She claims the recipe works on "all bugs". I thought that was a claim worth remembering, especially since I am committed to organic methods and am still learning my garden insects; it is all still intimidating to me! Having a simple remedy for "all bugs" was very attractive to me! :-)

We had an infestation critters on our 4 little eggplant plants, they had chewed up the leaves pretty good before we noticed them, so we were instantly in crisis mode. When we tried to identify the culprits, we weren't having much luck. That is when I remembered Mary's advice. I didn't want to loose precious time on researching while they were eating my eggplant (I saw my baba ganoush disappearing before my very eyes!) So I figured I would try Mary's recipe:

Amish Bug Spray for "All Bugs"

1/2C Brown Sugar to a gallon of boiling water (to dissolve the sugar)
Let it cool off!
Than spray all over your plants, being sure get all the leaves as best you can.

Too simple (and cheap) to be true right?? Wrong! It worked! We sprayed them well one time and the little rascals disappeared! I have to mention here that Mary warned me that it wears off in a week (especially if it rains) and it is best to reapply weekly - so keep that in mind - but in this case, we didn't have too. It has been over a month since then and we have not seen ANY bugs on those plants! The plants are pitiful looking. The leaves are almost like lace since we didn't catch it early in the infestation. They are still small too (no wonder -since their sun collecting leaves are easily at half capacity with all those holes)! However, we just noticed that we have eggplants forming now anyway! So we are excited!

As for Mary's natural spray for all bugs - It's a keeper in my garden notebook!



This post was shared at the Barn Hop

Homestead Preparation Checklist

I thought it would be good to do a little mental check-up on our preparations for hard times to come and our ability to be self sustainable. These are questions I find I ask myself in intervals every so often to check our progress and condition. Where am I weak? What needs the most attention? Have I been neglecting any of these areas?

1.Spirituality- I place this first on the list, because I believe it is! Regardless of circumstances, good or bad, feast or famine the most important thing to being "prepared", come what may, is the condition of my Spiritual walk with Yah. All else hinges on that. Am I following in the footsteps of Yeshua? Am I leading a life of worship... a life that is sold out for Him? Not a life of perfection mind you, but one of devotion and service, one of listening and responding, one of generosity and love toward my fellow man. Without love, I am nothing. The following preparations are worthless if I am not "sold out for YHVH" and I am not able to hear his still small voice and be willing and ready to drop all my plans in an instant to respond to His direction at any given time. We believe we are in His direction as we are doing these things, but to those who know Him and have walked in intimacy with him, we know that He works in mysterious ways! It is possible that He may not having us do all these things for the reasons and outcome WE THINK!

2. Developing Skills - I have been "reading" about homesteading for years, but actually doing it, is quite another story! "The proof is in the pudding " as my Mamma always used to say. :-) It is so easy to stay in this "hobby fascination" place. Or get swooped in the romance of hanging clothes on the line and baking bread. But it is not until you GIVE UP the dryer and trips to the store - that you really start to "own" these skills fully. It is so easy to make excuses about starting things "when we get some land, all the while living on "someday isle". But there are LOTS AND LOTS of skills that can be developed before one ever gets their acreage. Skills can be developed NOW, even if you life in an apartment or very small plot. We need to learn to work with what we've got and make the best of it! That is what is at the heart of homesteading and preparation! The land and "supplies" do us no good if we don't develop the skills, to use them well. Yes, I know, somethings WILL have to wait...but so many things DON'T. Not to mention if one is still waiting for their land, it really makes that time frame much more productive AND enjoyable!

Here is a list of some very useful skills that can be developed before one ever gets a farm:

Learning to 'do without', prioritizing things so that it will hasten your goal and move you TOWARD self sustainability. For instance, if the microwave breaks don't replace it. Consider a pressure cooker instead! If the TV fries - consider it a blessing! (Or here's a crazy thought - get rid of a working one!) :-) Learn to prepare everything from scratch, eating whole foods, preserving foods, natural health care (learning, making and using natural remedies and methods of healing and treating things), home improvements, mechanics (on everything from small engine to cars to appliances), composting, sewing, small scale gardening (in a pot even!), support your local farmers, sprouting, starting plants from seed/root, saving seed and the list goes on and on. Do what you can where you are, and those skills will go with you to the farm - when the time is right. There will be A LOT more new things for you to learn when you get there! But what a blessing it will be to have some of these things under your belt by then! Does all this sound overwhelming? If so, you might reconsider some things!

3. Supplies - I ask myself - what are the things I would hate to be without. Now if I were to answer, my curling iron, espresso machine, air conditioner and microwave.... well...I think we could probably stop this line of questioning right here...because there wouldn't be much that could be done from that point. :-) However, what I am talking about here is supplies for living in desperate times, the things which help sustain us! I can't help of think of American pioneers who settled America. They could only take so much 'stuff'. I know we can take more...but it is good to test our resolve and commitment in this same way. What are willing to do? What are we willing to leave behind? I have accumulated lots of things that could assist in this, over time - likely more than I need...but I LOVE 'tools'. :-) I think there are very different approaches to this category. Both of which I try to be aware while stocking up. One being homesteading survival supplies for here on the farm and the other being wilderness survival supplies if called away from the farm. Some double in function - but really they are very different categories.

What would I want on the homestead to survive a long term "depression" of some kind?

Independent access to good water. For us, that meant change. Our farm is on "town water". So we have to pay for our usage. (Not to mention the junk they put it it to "treat it" is NOT OK with us.) This does not bode well for one who uses water for animals, family and food! So that had to change. We started collecting water off our barn roof and dug a well. We did not want to have the well be subject to electric service to be drawn up, so we decided on a pump, that is run by solar with a manual back up. It will be powered by the sun (not the power company) and if something goes wrong with that system, we have good ol' man power to bring it up! We are not sure if filtration is needed yet, but if it is - that too will be done in a way that does not require power to be supplied from elsewhere.

The things we need to grow, raise, preserve and store food - We are developing this as well and will take the most time. We have started planting trees and are in the process of putting in a root cellar. We have stocked up with supplies to preserve our own food (without electricity). We still have electrical system in place (freezers, fridges and some electrical appliances) but we have lessened that and will continue to. We have chickens producing eggs and meat, as well as sheep for meat in our fields. We have more birds planned for this year and also hope to add a dairy and beef cow (and maybe some work animals - but that is a whole 'nother topic!). We have the space to sustain the animals on grass and eventually grow the grain or supply the environment for the birds to be sustained through the methods of permaculture. (Yet a whole 'nother post!)

Healthcare and First Aid supplies- Do I have what I need to administer and treat illness or injury? Of course the skills to do this also MUST be developed ahead of the time of need in severe cases and is VERY helpful in less severe cases. What I am speaking of is a lifestyle of learning how to "be Your own Doctor". It takes a passionate commitment and time to develop well. It takes resources and materials to "practice" with, and the wisdom of those who have gone before us. It a huge responsibility that many people will never want to do. However, my family's health is a very important thing to me. It is something I want to be prepared to maintain!

Shelter- For most people, this is a given - where one starts. We had a small house on the property, but were willing to "rough it" and build our own if that was the place Yah took us. We did live 'roughly' for 6 months during the move and work that was done on our little house when we first moved. This house, has no basement and we have discovered that we live in a tornado rich area...so the root cellar will act as that emergency shelter for us as well.

4. Survival Skills and Tools - What if all the preparations we put in place fail us? Like a disease strikes our livestock or insects plague our gardens. What if a tornado, earthquake, floods, fire, vandalism rip through our farm and leave us with nothing? Anything could happen! The Scriptures warn us that in the end these thing WILL happen more and more...Could we survive if I couldn't "buy" food, clothes, water, medicine, or shelter? I do not want to sound like an alarmist...I am not. Nor am I conspirator. Just one who sees the possibility of this being a reality and wanting to be prepared while at the same time equipping my children to be prepared too. We Americans have gotten so "comfortable". We have gotten very arrogant in our wealth as a nation. I don't know if you have noticed...but our country's financial stability is teetering on the edge of disaster! Our culture is also less than virtuous on the whole, so it is very possible that those who were seen as "poor farmers" before could be seen as "millionaires" in the eyes of the desperate.

So these are the questions we find ourselves asking in regards to that:

Knowing that I have Yah, I ask what my responsibility beyond that is. Could we survive in the wilderness? If we had to flee and were "on the road" would I have the skills and supplies to keep my family safe and alive without the security of my homestead?

There are some things we have done in this area, but it is the area that I am less than confident in. These are my goals in order or importance to me:

* To have a GOOD working knowledge and PRACTICE of wild growing vegetation, so that we could treat ailments or eat from the "weeds" we see all around us.

* To have a family "go bag" as my friend calls it. A small efficient emergency pack that you can grab and go, that would supply you with emergency rations, clothing, tools, clean water, basic first aid.

* Develop wilderness/or bush skills. Understanding nature and using it to my advantage. Learning to be acutely aware of my surroundings. Understand the body and it's limits. How to make shelter and fire and food out of "nothing".

5. Community - People you can trust are priceless! I have to ask - Do we have people whom we would trust with our lives? Do we have people whom would give THEMSELVES up for us? Would we do the same for them? Do I have a place designated for my children to go (permanently) we were to die or be permanently disabled? It seems to me, that the ONLY way, we could find these people, is if we were to BE these people first!

6. General Health - This is something that we do NOW. We need to take responsibility for our health now. Without it, we can not effectively do the practical things required of us on the homestead. Homesteading is work. You are right - you can have a gentleman's farm where everything is run for you by others..but that is NOT a homestead. Learn what it means to be healthy and choose those things over the other...simple on paper - right? This is simply something we can not ignore...if we do not have our health - our whole quality (and quantity) of life is compromised or traded. Yes, there are events in life that may steal one's health that could not be prevented - but more often than not - so many of today's health issues CAN be prevented or fixed by making deliberate changes in our daily habits and convictions. These are things which it is our resposibility NOT to ignore.

7. Fight or Flight - With the hostility of the climate of freedoms on parents, farmers, homeschoolers and the faith community rising in leaps and bounds. I have to ask myself - what would I do if..... If state or federal authorities told me I HAD to put my children in state institutions (schools) or could not buy or raise my own healthy food (just their modified kind), or that I could not teach them the Bible, or that I had to administer some sort of mandatory drug to them that I understand to be unsafe, or any number of things!! (Now I know this sounds conspiratorial - but honestly, I really only go here long enough in prayer to ask for guidance and advice from Yah! However, these are questions I must ask myself.) The fact is - the answer is not clear for me accept to lean into HIM with all I am for guidance on that specific instance IF it arises. I will do what He should have me do at that moment. It causes me to increase my intimacy with Him, so that I know, that I know, that I know HIS voice. So that I may be prepared. It causes me to realize how very dependant I am on HIM and that there is not better place to be!

8. Money- Some people want to chalk everything up to "money". In our time together as a married couple we have experianced a extreme spectrum the yearly income difference over the last 17 years (from 6K - 300K yearly!). It is from that experiance I can speak. YES, it is nice to have a lot of money at your command. However, I have learned, that even more importantly than HOW MUCH you have, is what you do with what you have that really matters! Are you spending it wisely? Do you use it to glorify the Father or yourself? Does it reflect HIS values? Do you live WITHIN your means or do you use credit, always living just outside your means? Do you live generously toward others? Do you sqaunder money on things that tickle your flesh (no matter how big or small)? Do you use your money to purchase things that are contrary to the vision that YHVH (God) has put in you? These are all questions that must be honestly answered in this area of preparing. The topic of money is very revealing as to our spiritual condition; and so we return back to the 1st point once again (Spirituality and our relationship with Yah). This is so typical of how YHVH works and so typical of the patterns He sets forth in His Scripture...His creation, His plan and His training take us in cycles...year after year and we learn and grow and get willingly wittled into the Master's likeness. I wouldn't have it any other way..I am so thankful that HE prepares me!

May your cup overflow with love to spill onto others. May your barrel always be full of grain and your bottle full of oil. May the work of your hands glorify Him. May you have sweet fellowship in His Kingdom. May your days be numbered with great vitality and passion for His ways. May you let YHVH choose your battles. May you invest your skills and 'talents' wisely to edify your Master. May you be ready for Yeshua's return with your lamps full and your hearts pure.

Blessings in Him, pamela

This post was shared at Preparedness Challenge

Sorghum

Have you ever heard of Sorghum before? I hadn't until we moved to Tennessee. We noticed these signs up all over our area at the Amish farms. We started asking around and found out it was a sweet syrup similar to molasses. Well, I am never been a huge fan of molasses, except for putting it my ginger bread...so that was pretty much where the buck stopped for me. But then, last Sukkot, some friend of ours asked for some help during the week of the feast to go to their farm and help harvest the sorghum. We new nothing of it, but when a friend in Yah asks for help what do you do? GO (whenever we can)!! Right??!! Well we do. Anyway, it was an adventurous day, and even though we worked and it was hot - it was a lot of fun!

Sweet Sorghum is a tall (8ft or so) grass/cane. It kind of reminded me of corn. Our job was to strip the leaves down off the stalks and then others (who better knew what they were doing) came behind us and hacked the stalks with a machete and put them in piles. The stalks were then taken to a local mill where the stalks are pressed to remove the cane juice inside. It is boiled down like maple syrup to get more concentrated in flavor. (We did not witness this part.) They brought us a jar of it later as a thank you for helping and it was delicious! I would describe it closer to the flavor of honey than molasses! You can use it like honey. It is so much milder than molasses. I was told this was the sweetest and mildest they (and others) had ever tasted...so I hope it wasn't a fluke. But we are going to try to grow some this year! We figure with the economy going the way it is and food prices doing what they are, it is good to diversify into different areas of self sustainability. We are told it is hardy and grows in just about any soil and is not very picky, it can withstand drought pretty good.

I researched some more and learned that sorghum grain is the third most important cereal crop grown in the United States and the fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world. The United States is the world's largest producer of grain sorghum followed by India and Nigeria. It is a leading cereal grain produced in Africa and is an important food source in India. Leading exporters are the United States, Australia and Argentina." Hmm - who knew?? This Yankee girl didn't. Apparently, it is a "southern thing". As you can see from the other regions in which it is grown, it likes the heat.

The tops of the plants generate the seed grain. This can be used for a plethora of things! The grain can be ground into a flour, or cooked similar to rice. It can be made into porridge or popped like popcorn! It is used for animal feed too! The birds love it, so you have to beat them too it. Some varieties are used as wild feed plots for hunters.

This year we are experimenting with our own sorghum. We got seed form our local Amish which is another story in itself: I had been researching seeds online and found out there are many varieties, that have different uses and stronger qualities for the various uses. I was finding about 10gr for about $3. Other places we saw 100 or 200 seeds going for the same price. We weren't sure how much we would need for the patch we had designated, but estimated about 2500 seeds based on our square footage. That would be close to $40 at that rate...we thought there would have to be a better way. Our friends said "check the Amish" (DUH!), so we did..and within a half hour we were driving home with a POUND of seeds (way more than we need) for $1.50!! No tax, not shipping and we met some new neighbors in the process, perfect. Buy local - right?! YES!! We'll have to take pictures of our process and let you know how it goes. We have a mill to press it, close by, so we are covered there too.

We don't know what to expect for syrup or seed yield. If things go well and we like it, (and we get a tractor to work with) we will increase our crop next year.


This post was shared on The Barn Hop

Our Family Jots and Tittles

This week has been a flurry of activity! We have had a busy farm of local visitors. We tried to help some elderly folks up the road with a stray Pyrenees (that just had with pups in their shed) last week and they stopped back to update us on the dog's condition and care. And when she did, she brought a young single fella with her that homesteads and grows herbs a mile or so up the road from her, who also happens to be Messianic (or at least leans that way).

1. We started off the week by planting, planting, planting. (Followed by mulching, mulching, mulching!) We are not finished yet, we hope to plow up some more ground, but this is what we got in so far:

Cabbage, lots of different herbs (culinary and medicinal), bell pepper, zucchini, carrots, jalapeno peppers, ancho peppers, chili peppers, sweet banana peppers, yellow pear tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, red potatoes, white potatoes, strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, eggplant, and a butterfly bush. I know I am forgetting something!

I have rhubarb, peppermint, a thornless blackberry bush that still need to go in yet, when I get their place ready. I hope to get some corn, lentils, oats, green beans in soon, and plan to start some more herbs from seed this week - to trans plant later. We really wanted to put snap peas in, but were forwarned that people don't have success down here with them because of our intense summer sun. I am told, with some experiance, people have had success starting them really early in green houses, but that they would be ready to harvest soon! So I suppose I will need to save THAT experiment for another year. :-) I also need to move my Roman Chamomile on the advice of a friend who says it doesn't do so well in direct sun down here either...so I will try to put it on the east side of the house, where it will recieve part shade.

2. We have LOTS of trees to clean up. Two of our Amish neighbors came and took what they wanted from many of our cedar trees (about 20) and 4 walnuts. Now we have the top 20 feet or so of each tree to cut up, clear and stack for firewood. I think daddy will be mostly in charge of the cutting part, we help with the stacking part and clearing part. :-) What a blessing our farm truck is for things like this!! We re taking the cedar trees down for the sake of our new apple orchard we just planted as there is a fungus that is caused by having cedars close by. The 4 walnuts are coming down because they are in the middle of what will be come a driveway/parking area for the farm and guests. (They were not well anyway, their time was close at hand naturally.) As a result, I think we are going to be well prepared for wood next winter! What a wonderful feeling.

After we get the tree cleaning up and what we can use stacked, we'll look into getting the stumps ground down.



3. The hole has been dug for our root cellar; it measures 12x32 and is a little over 8 feet deep. It rained right after it was finished, so it has almost a foot of water sitting in it. We are thinking we are going to have to pump it out to help it dry up so we can continue our work. A pond may come later...but this is NOT the time (or the place!). :-) We have a neighbor who is a construction Foreman and he excavates with his own equipment on the side. (Nice, huh?!) Our (Amish) block layer showed up after being out of town for the last several weeks, to check in. We had some rain the last couple days here, so we need to wait until our little "pond" dries up before he can start getting to work. If the weather works with us, he is projected to start Thurs.

You can really see the dirt we have here on the farm to plant in too. It's rocky orange clay...(the orange clay reminds me of PA) Its gonna take many years of adding to the soil (and removing rocks) in our planting areas to get it where we really want it. Until then, we work with what we have and make the best of it! We are very very thankful to have it!

As a part for this project, the dirt that is being pulled out for the root cellar is being used to grade the very hilly side next to the shed as well as filling up the old hand dug well that sat in front of the house (right in front of my porch rockers). It was a big cement slab with a large cement circle and metal dome cap. U - G - L - Y! My kids used to play all around, it, riding their tricycles around the circle and using it as a "home base" for tag. Which was cute, but I can't tell you how many times I have lost my breath over a child tripping over the cement slab and falling toward the big cement monolith in the center to be "safe". I am happy to see it filled in. Right now, it is a muddy mess with the rains we just had. The whole front porch is blocked by about 10 feet of mud. Imagine pouring dirt and rocks into a class of water, it's gonna over flow, right? So does a wet well when it is filled in! These pictures don't show the worst of it (If forgot to take pictures then. But this is the state of it at the time of this writing, (about 5 days after). We have had to put boards down to get over the mud to our front door - not so pretty now...but it is worth it! I am looking forward to driveway plans and landscaping in the future....(Maybe next year?? Not sure when.)

4. When Ben was in town last week he ran into our chiropractor and he excited pulled him aside, as he seemed to like to do with Ben. He loves to talk about Scripture and He loves to ask Ben's opinion on stuff. Well this week, he said, "What are you doing this Sunday?" Ben was silent, knowing that Sunday is always our biggest chore day on the farm. He knows this guy is really active in his church. Our Dr. continued, I want you to come down to my (Baptist) church and teach my Sunday School Class of 20 year olds. Ben asked what it was He wanted him to teach on and He said, "What ever the Spirit leads you to teach." They agreed that he would not have to stay for church service, that he could run the class and leave. The Dr. would be there in class so Ben agreed. We have not been in a "Sunday Church" for 5 1/2 years...Yah gave us a sense that He is going to use us in this way some how (about a year ago) to aid in the restoration of His family ...so we continue to wait (and be "at the ready) for His leading and provision and guidance, as we ONLY want to go where HE sends us and do what HE has sent us there to do!!! I am prayerful, and asking, does this have something with the "ordination papers" he just had us get???? Hmmmm....

Ben reminded me, that just a few days before, I asked him (out of 'nowhere'), "Do you ever just get a 'wild hair' to go to a Sunday Church if we were lead too?" His answer was "Yes" and that was end of that topic - neither of us had any more to say. We don't know what YHVH is doing here...but we are certainly going to follow His lead! After much prayer, Ben decided to teach "Who is Israel" to the group. It was a small group and half way through the teaching the class doubled with a group of older women who came in. This made it kind of awkward because he had been creating some "foundation" before they arrived that was lacking for them which made Ben uncomfortable. He said the whole "atmosphere" changed when they arrived, but all in all, It seemed to go pretty well, the Dr. asked him to come back another time, (although a date was not set). We would appreciate your prayers in this regard. We so long for YHVH's people to lay down this modern (false) notion of replacement theology that has snuck it's way into churches and for people to understand the fullness of the gospel in The Scriptures that starts in Genesis and runs all the way to Revelation. We hope to be used to help people understand the Scriptures more clearly in the context in which they were written, rather then the context in which their denomination (or "non denomination"!) chooses to paint it. We hope to encourage His people to let The Scriptures transform us into His likeness rather than trying to transform The Scriptures and Him into what we like. (Hence we have over 2000 denominations, theologies and brands of "churches" today.) Father please forgive us for what we have done!

We pray you all have a wonderful week in Him! May YHVH bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you!

and the Tribe of Ben

This post was shared at The Barn Hop

How to Homestead Videos

I thought I would share this wonderful site from some folks in my old stomping grounds, San Fransisco (Bay Area). They have a collection of homesteading videos and are taking submissions for new ones! Who knows, one day we may see videos from each of us on there!

Enjoy!

I share this post on The Barn Hop

Rain Collection on Shalom Farm

1. We found (4) used food grade 275 gallon commercial liquid storage tanks that (seemed to) used to have contained vinegar before. We found them by asking those we knew in our Amish Community and they referred us to a farmer who gets them and resells them. $30 each. They made of white translucent plastic and sitting in a metal cage. (The tank can be removed from the cage, but the cage reinforces the tank when full of liquid.)


2. We painted them reflective silver paint (used for tin barn roofs). We did this to create an opaque tank that would not allow light to enter so that the water could be stored in a light free environment (so no algae/bacteria would form). We also placed the tanks on the North side of the barn (which conveniently, is the back side - so appeals to Momma's aesthetic needs - YES!).


3. Pappa built a strong table to place the tanks on, so they could be raised 4ft feet high to increase our water pressure that would come out of the hose when it is used for garden and animals. This was done by used materials we had on the farm.
4. Pappa also installed 40 ft of gutter on one side of the barn to collect the water from one half of the barn's tin roof. ($125 for materials) He ran a downspout from the gutter to the tank and cut a hole (with a utility knife) in the top corner of the closest tank to the barn (it created a snug fit and did a nice job stabilizing the downspout). There was a spout in the center of the container, but it would have required elbowing and angling the downspout and Ben thought a direct flow would be wiser.

5. Pappa plumbed the original container spigots together with pvc pipe, caulk and rubber gaskets so there is one central spout to empty both tanks simultaneously. This also causes them to fill simultaneously as well. As the water enters into the first container through the downspout, it goes down to the lowest point (the bar connecting the two containers) and enters the second container. This could be down for any number of containers - so one's storage capacity could easy increase with more tanks. Lastly, Pappa put another hole in the top of the second tank at the top and fitted a simple small angled pipe as a spout OUT of the that container, in case our water collection from that side of the barn would exceed our storage capacity, it will just drain our that little spout instead of backing up to the gutter. This keeps moving water away from the barn's foundation (and the chicken's coop entrance!)
We have the materials and intent to do this on BOTH sides of the barn, which will give us 1050 gallons of rain water storage. However, we are planning on building a lean-to on the other side of the barn first, the gutters will be affixed to that and collect water from the double roof on that side. So...the completion of our entire rain collection plan will not com to pass until that "middle project" is. We hope to complete them both this year though.

We shared this post at Simple Lives Thursdays and Preparedness Challenge

Broody Hens

This week we prepared a second pen and did our "emergency reading" on what to do with a couple of hens that were going broody. This was very exciting because Road Island Reds aren't known to be particularly good instinctive mothers. And in our 3 years of keeping chickens we have never had one go broody so imagine our excitement! It was our prayer to be able to hatch out some of our own chicks and continue our layers each year so we have them laying in their prime while continuing to brood our new flock. We will mark these two mammas to see if they go broody again. If they do, they will not hit the pot as fast as the others! If this is something that we can continue to encourage, this will be wonderful! Because we won't have to repurchase layers again!! (That is our hope!) We had an old chicken tractor that was left behind by the previous owners that we had hoped to modify for our brooding hens, but when we pulled it out of the field it literally fell apart in our hands as we tried to move it. The wood was rotted all the way through. So (instead of doing what we had planned that day!) Ben got to building another one. He used the fence from the last one, and rebuilt the frame from scrap wood we had and put some boxes and a roof on a section of it. The boxes have an earthen bottom, because we read that it is better for the eggs in the latter stages of their development before they hatch. It has to do with the moisture received from sitting on the straw which sits on the ground. We read somewhere that it is best to separate the birds first and confirm that they are brooding. (They sit on a nest a lot and stops laying.) Check. An Amish man we know suggested that you transfer the hen quietly to a nest full of freshly laid eggs in the dark, for the smoothest transition. (He says that's what they do.) That is what we did and it seems to have worked. In 20-21 days, we hope to have about a dozen baby chicks chirping around their little cage!! We'll keep you posted. This post was shared on the Barn Hop #6