Updates

Yes.  I'm into creative titles these days.

I can't believe my blogging has precipitously dropped off these past few months.  When I was homeschooling both kids, I would oftentimes take a few minutes in the morning to at least start a post.  Now that Akea is attending public school, it's a rush to get everyone out the door to drop her off, and she comes home with plenty of homework, most of with which she needs help.

And having Charlie at home, by himself, means he needs more attention from me.  It's just the way things are rolling these days.

From a homesteading perspective, things are slowing down, but I have been attacking some projects inside the house.  So right now, our life looks like this:

Outside
1. The steers go to the butcher tomorrow.  When we bought them, we knew they weren't pets, but because we raised them from their first week of life, we've grown a bit attached.

2. The younger hens are almost six months old and have been laying small, pullet eggs for about a month.  We're happy that the flocks merged without a hitch, and the goats are enjoying being pastured with them as well.  Our thought is that the goats provide a degree of predator protection for the chickens.

3. The garden has been done for a while.  The no-till idea didn't mix well with my fatigue and the drought this summer, so Byron will till it in the spring and we will try raised beds.  I have a bit of lettuce in pots.

4. We need to prep the hoop house for the chickens, which involves clearing it out, protecting the sides where they'd dug under last year, and making a small access door into the garden.  We want them to be able to go outside when they want, instead of being cooped up (literally) all winter.

Inside
1. I painted the kitchen and large common area at the back of the house, and have begun to work on re-upholstery again.  Soon to come is painting and/or refinishing a few pieces of furniture, then organizing.  Lots of organizing.

2. Byron plans to repair the floor and damaged joist in the downstairs bedroom, and lay hardwood flooring.  Part of the holdup has been figuring out exactly how to reconfigure the bathroom, but I think we have finally made our decision...we're keeping it simple and not tearing up and rebuilding walls.

3. My Nutrimill died!  I believe the motor burned up.  However, I have to give props to L'Equip, the company that makes the machine.  They told me to send it in, and they're fixing it free of charge.  Totally took my word for it that I'm the original owner, too, and told me not to even worry about sending in the receipt.  In all this, a big thanks to my friend, Katey, who has let me borrow her hand mill!

In all this, we are trying to figure out some ways to streamline the homesteading aspect of our lives.  Raised beds will hopefully be easier on me, and Byron would like to set up some semi-permanent electric wire paddocks for whenever we get more cows.  Any by the way, we are going to try to get a couple heifers (young, female cows) that we can breed, which will be much more sustainable than buying calves.

I will be back to update from time to time, but my guess is that it won't be as frequent as it has been in the past.  As our kids grow, they're beginning to show interests in different activities.  For Charlie, it's soccer and guitar.  Akea is interested in basketball and drama.  True, this seems contrary to the homesteading lifestyle to a degree, but we are trying to find that balance.

so much depends...

upon a red wagon
that used to carry children

and now carries
water
toys
garden tools
branches for the goats
buckets of weeds
chicken feed
and
kelp for the cows

How do you haul?

Rural Thursdays.  Check it out here.  And I promise, this is my last rip-off poetry attempt.  Probably.

I Like Big Books

I like big books with a cup of coffee.

I like big books with a cup of coffee and no interruptions.

I like big books and I cannot lie.

I cleaned up my nightstand just for you.

Thought I'd let you know that I like to read for about ten minutes before I fall dead asleep.  And that I'm still alive.  And that I don't always read books this big.  See those skinny Sherlock Holmes novels tucked toward the bottom?  I hid them because I'm trying to stay away from fiction.  When I read The Hunger Games series a couple months ago, my floors collected two inches of dirt and my kids were washing out their own underwear.  Okay, maybe not that bad, but it was bad.

This week I've been chasing cows, watching kids, testing kids, stressing over Sally Fallon-style grain soaking (more on that after I smack myself in the head with Nourishing Traditions a couple times), and doing lots of heavy farm chores since Byron threw his back out this weekend.  So actually, he's the one who's had the tough week!

And maybe I'll get some brain and muscle tone between these two passions.  Who needs that Biggest Loser chick when you've got a farm???

About the Blog Formerly Known as Green Acres

In the past few days, I posted about giving my blog a makeover, and for the most part, accomplished what I set out to do.  You can read my senseless drivel here and here.  However, in regard to the URL, I've decided to leave it.  I don't want to lose followers, and although I'm not so cheap that I can't stomach coughing up $10 per year to buy a domain name, I question whether or not the price will remain that low in the years to come.  So you can find Green Legacy Farm at www.greenacresmama.blogspot.com.

As always!

Still Under Construction...

As you can see, I've worked a few things out in the past couple days.  Generally, I'm much happier with the layout.  And as for the photo montage, I don't know if it's uber-cool, but it is uber-done.

I am still debating simply changing the URL in blogger settings to somehow reflect the new name, Green Legacy Farm.  Apparently, this can lead to follower loss, and I don't want to lose any of you!  Or I can buy a domain name, and Blogger promises that you can tag along.  Funny how that works, don't you think?  At any rate, this is something I'm going to be switching in the next couple days, so keep your hard hats on!

A special thanks to Amy @ Heritage Homemaker for her advice and tips!  Check her blog out here.

Under Construction!

Remember right around New Years I posted about re-naming and re-designing my blog a bit?  Well, my first attempt has proven to be pretty sad, as you can see.  I also have a million things to do today.  But since my membership hit fifty recently (thank you SO much for following me!), I decided I needed to give it a go.  Here are the changes I've made:

• The name of the blog is now Green Legacy Farm, not Green Acres
• My name is Laura @ Green Legacy Farm, not Greenacresmama
• I've been (very unsuccessfully) messing around with layout

And here are the changes I plan on making as soon as I can figure out how:

• Ditch the tiger lilies for an uber-cool photo montage
• Change the URL to reflect the new name.  This frightens me, because I don't want to lose you!  Any advice on how to do this without sending my blog into a cyberspace black hole?

So for now, the URL is still greenacresmama.blogspot.com. 

Thank you so much for being patient with me!

A Good Read or Two

It's not a book recommendation this time.  Since we're in that nebulous time between winter projects and spring busyness, I thought I'd share a couple articles I read recently.

Okay, I know I post about this guy a lot, but honestly, he's spot-on.  The first is by Joel Salatin, addressing the issue of food elitism and the guilt some of us may feel over spending more of our income on food.  I've been wrestling with this a bit lately, as I browse websites loaded with testimonials on couponing and saving megabucks at the grocery store.  Sure, there's a place for coupons, but I keep thinking that with the time it takes to do the actual clipping, organizing, keeping abreast of sales...not to mention the hours (and gas) used to make multiple trips to multiple grocery stores...I'm here planting, canning, freezing, and cooking fresh food.  So if you need to be encouraged in your endeavors to eat local, click to read "Rebel With a Cause: Foodie Elitism."

The next article is a post from a blog I ran into, called Cold Antler Farm.  The post, entitled  "Apartment 3A Farm!" encourages people who want to farm, to farm...no matter where they are!  I know several people who want more land, but have wisely resigned to staying in their neighborhoods because of the slow housing market.  Two families we know are actually using their front yards since these get more sunlight!  My friend Jen just told me she's shifting some ornamentals to make room for fruit-bearing bushes and trees, and some other friends are putting in raised beds and have started diligently composting.  Anyone wanting to live a bit more sustainably will find this to be an encouraging read!

I Promise I'm Not in Cahoots with Chipotle!

I ran across this video clip of a Chipotle commercial.  All I really know about them is that they try to source local meats, which is a commendable goal for a chain restaurant!  Perhaps you've seen it, but if not, it's worth watching:

Kind of appropriate for Presidents Day, too, as I think back to our Founding Fathers and the America they knew!

What Do a Cow and a Tick Have in Common?

It's not a trick question.  Rather, it was my revelation of the week.  For those of you who don't know, I've been hounded by allergic reactions to beef for over a year now.  The onset was a mystery, and no matter how much research I did or how many people I asked, I have not been able to solve this rather inconvenient conundrum.

Until a few days ago.

A conversation with some friends led me to again do a Google search on beef allergies.  I had been thinking that for some odd reason, my usually healthy self had trouble producing the enzyme that digests red meat.  And then I read this article on a website called Allergic Living.  I encourage you to take a look, especially if you live in the South and have been bitten by a tick.  Here's the summary:

A Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills at the University of Virginia had a number of patients who were going into anaphylactic shock (which can be deadly) after eating red meat.  He had basically no explanation for the phenomenon, until he was bitten by a tick back in 2007.  Three months later, he woke up covered in hives after eating red meat for dinner.  Not so much fun, but a theory was born.

Sure enough, after asking patients who had developed the allergy if they had been bitten by a tick shortly before eating red meat, he discovered that they indeed had.  Every one.  Apparently, something in the tick - perhaps the saliva or another organism - reacts with a sugar in the meat, causing the production of an antibody, which then causes the allergic reaction.  Fascinating, but I have several questions that remain.

First, why me?  My husband has been bitten by ticks but has not (yet) developed a reaction.  My sister-in-law, who also had a reaction to red meat after being bitten by a tick, is A negative like me; we are wondering if there is a correlation.  Secondly, is there any supplement that I could take to counter this reaction?  And finally, how long does it take for the antibodies to work out of one's system?

A nurse friend of mine suggested keeping an epi pen and Benadryl on hand, which is wise.  As the last reaction I had involved cramps that rivalled labor pangs, I have no desire to experience that again and am wary that one of my children could develop a reaction.  I'd be curious to know if any of you have had a similar experience, or know anyone who has.

What I Should Have Said

I promise, I was going to post on the rain barrels today.  But I'm interrupting myself because what happened yesterday evening is just too absurd to pass up, and to add a little suspense and expectation to Blogland (regarding the rain barrels).

As I was making calzones last night, someone knocked at the door.  I opened it to be greeted by a young man who was trying to get rid of a bunch of meat in his van, which struck me as odd but I listened to his spiel anyway.  And he occasionally interjected with lines such as:

Meat Boy: What's that?  Over there...on the door?

Me: A spider.

Meat Boy: A spider?  Oh, yuck!  I don't do the country!

(More about the meat, then...)

Meat Boy (finally noticing the dough on my hands): Was I interrupting something?

Me: I was making calzones.

Meat Boy: Making calzones?

Me: Yeah, I make them from scratch.

Meat Boy: GET OUT!

(Trying to get me to come out to the van to see this mystery meat, but I'm not budging and am beginning to wonder where Byron is, then...)

Meat Boy: (pointing) What are those over there?

Me: Cows.

Meat Boy: Cows? Are they pets?

Me: No, we're raising them for meat.

Meat Boy: GET OUT!

Oh, I how wished he would get out (he eventually did after I told him I wasn't interested).  And then I began to wish I was quick on my feet.  I'm one of those people who kicks herself for days because I think of a witty response after the fact.  However, I posted this incident on Facebook and am now inspired for the next clueless visitor who comes along.  Here are some suggestions from friends, as well as some of my after-the-fact thoughts, as to the alternate identity of our cows:

1. Big dogs
2. Big dogs we're going to eat.
3. Spotted African Pygmy Elephants
4. Ligers
5. Baby dragons whose eggs we found in the chicken's nest box and who have not sprouted wings yet.
6. Bos taurus (that's the scientific name...to which it would be great fun to preface with, "flesh-eating")

Or maybe I should just carry around a shotgun and some chewing tobacco and practice my, "You ain't from around these parts, are you?" line.  I'm open to suggestions.

Got a Blog? Get FREE Holiday Cards from Shutterfly!

Thanks to Varunner at Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs for giving me a heads up on this one!  Shutterfly is offering 50 free Christmas cards to anyone who blogs about this fantastic offer!  So if you have a blog, consider jumping on this deal and getting a head start on the holiday craziness.  I had planned on just mailing out store-bought cards this time around, but I'm thinking those are going to collect dust for another year.  All you have to pay is shipping and handling, and signing up takes like two minutes.  Interested yet?  Good!  Click here to sign up.

In the past, I've banded together with my three sisters-in-law to make wall calendars for the grandparents through Shutterfly, and we've always been beyond pleased with the product.  This year, they have new desktop calendars, which you can check out here.  And at the moment they're 30% off!  (Attention Grandparents: I know you want one this year, too!)

Anyway, I've always thought about doing photo Christmas cards and am excited that I'll actually be sending some out this year.  Any friends who have been following this blog don't really need a Christmas letter anyway.  As for designs, choosing one will be the hardest part because there are 803 of them!  I like this one for a photo collage.  This card would look great with a single black and white photo, this one would look great with a sepia tone photo to set off the blue, and I love the simplicity of this card.  Choosing from these designs may be the toughest decision I have to make for Christmas purchases this year!

P.S.: These cards are sustainably forested, and I like that!

Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk

Recently I decided to start buying milk from a local farm that gets its milk from a small creamery.  The decision was made after I drank a glass of (organic) milk we'd been getting from the grocery store.  Like most milk, it's bottled in plastic, which I could taste when I drank it.  All I could think about was that whatever was leeching into the milk from the plastic was going into my children's bodies.  So even though the milk from the farm is a bit more expensive, I decided to make the switch.

The milk we've been getting is bottled in glass, for which you have to pay a deposit, and I get the non-homogenized milk.  There are several advantages here.  First, the glass is re-used.  Even though we were recycling the plastic jugs, I would think there's less processing involved in just sterilizing a glass bottle versus putting a plastic jug through the entire recycling process.

Second, the milk I get is not homogenized.  That means there's good old fashioned cream on the top, which I scoop out and substitute for oil in baking.  Homogenization began as an attempt to make all milk the SAME for each consumer, but there's more to it than meets the eye...or the gut.  There are studies that show that homogenization can lead to leaky gut syndrome, and though I've been drinking homogenized milk for most of my life, it's always nice to cut out another health risk.

Finally, I'm supporting a local farm.  Granted, they get their milk from a separate creamery, but I'm still putting money directly back into my community and the milk isn't getting shipped from across the country.  And less fuel = happier environment.

All that being said, we seem to be having problems getting this milk into our stomachs.  Last week, the kids spilled entire glasses of milk three times, and I admit, I got frustrated...especially by accident #3.  But this morning beat all.

Byron gets up shortly before I do to get ready for work, and Charlie - the true early bird of the family - usually follows.  By the time I got up this morning, Byron was almost ready to walk out the door.  Then I opened the fridge.

Sometime between then and the time Byron had gotten himself breakfast, an entire, full bottle of milk had burst in the fridge due to mysterious overcooling.  That particular bottle had been placed right next to the cooling vent, which for some reason decided the refrigerator compartment was the freezer.  Milk was splattered on each tray, over the sides, into the drawers, and onto all the food in the fridge, including the venison that was cooling (happily, it was covered).  Byron gently reminded me not to panic before he had to leave, as little blue eyes were watching me. 

During the hour it took me to clean out the fridge and dispose of the shattered glass, I thought a lot about how I react to difficult situations.  Lately, it hasn't been so pretty.  But as there was nothing I could do to reverse the situation, I tried thinking of the bright side (not something that comes naturally to me).  This hadn't happened at night, for one.  The fridge had gotten colder, which is much better than it shutting down completely and all our food spoiling.  And only one bottle had burst, not the other two that had been sitting right next to it.

I'm still not sure what's wrong with the fridge, but I'm at least going to give the coils a good cleaning today to see if that helps (it hasn't shut off at all this morning, despite turning the temperature down).  It may need a new thermostat.  It may be on its way out.  But I'm going to try to remember the good in this relatively little episode of spilt milk.

Return to Blogland?

I've been thinking this whole week that I really haven't had much of a chance to update the blog recently.  I follow several blogs and am amazed at the wonderful posts these other busy moms manage to create.  Maybe I've been slacking because of our frequent trips to visit Other House.  Thankfully, fall is here and we won't have to keep the grass cut as often...and wouldn't it be nice if there was a contract waiting for us on our next trip down there?  Well, I can hope, right?

Another reason is that I managed to score almost an entire bushel of free apples from a small local orchard.  When the owner told me I could have anything on the ground for free, he obviously didn't know who he was talking to!  So...let the gleaning begin!  To be fair, I searched the almost barren trees for apples I could actually buy, but there were so many wonderful Enterprise apples on the ground that were barely damaged that I couldn't resist rescuing them from the plethora of yellow jackets feasting on their fermenting brothers.  I also bought half a bushel of lovely, dark, Arkansas Black apples.  With the Enterprise (sweet and Fugi-like, but much easier to grow because of their disease resistance), I made applesauce and mixed them with some Staymen for some apple butter.  Arkansas Black are rather tart, however, so I made an apple crisp with those.  They're not my favorite eating apple, but they store well and are one of Byron's favorites.  These trees are also quite disease resistant.

And then the other reason the blog's been suffering...homeschooling.  Obviously, this is one of my priorities, and I really haven't blogged about it yet because I'm not sure of how much wisdom I have to offer on the topic.  I will, however, have to start blogging about some of my trouble areas so that I can glean some wisdom from those of you who have more expertise than I in this area!

Along those lines, I will throw out there that I'm a tutor for our local chapter of Classical Conversations, which is a national organization that takes a Christian, classical approach to education.  I absolutely love this program!  Charlie isn't in a class yet, but Akea is in my class, a group of seven 5-6 year old girls (we nerd moms call this the Abecedarian/Apprentice class).  CC encourages the local chapters to divide the classes by gender (dividing by age is sort of a given) because girls and boys learn so differently.  And I can attest to this...I tutored the Abecedarian (4-5 year old) boys last year.  With the boys, we did a lot of marching, jumping, throwing (sometimes this got a little out of control, I admit) in order to learn the memory work for the week.  The girls, however, are content to clap, color, and chant their history sentences, science facts, and so forth.  It's a nice breather for me.

So preparing for CC takes up some time during the week.  This week, however, I have my work cut out for me because we're starting tin whistle, which is the scourge of almost every CC tutor who does not have a degree in music.  Not because it's impossible to teach, but because it's intimidating to those of us who can barely play "Chopsticks" on the piano.  And to boot, I can't sing.  Seriously...unlike many homeschoolers out there, we're not a VonTrapp family!  I dread it in church when someone is standing directly in front of me during worship.  Yeah, yeah, I know...make a joyful noise unto the Lord...I've heard that before, okay?  Anyway, CC meets tomorrow and though I have a lesson prepared, I need to actually make sure I can play more than one note on that darn instrument.  And the whole time, I'll be looking forward to the spring semester of CC, when we'll alternate back to visual arts and I can let my tin whistle collect dust for another year!

Well, that was longer than I anticipated, and I need to begin my day.  Here are some topics I anticipate blogging about in the coming weeks:

1. One of the coolest things I've ever seen...a gift from Aunt Dottie and Uncle Hank!
2. More on canning applesauce and apple butter
3. More on baking bread
4. The Wanna-be Farmers (that's us) must be crazy...a post on foraging hay
5. And maybe I'll let you know how tin whistle is going...