I borrowed this from a friend and it’s really good. I hope that you get from it and share it with your tribe. I probably would have said pretty much all of it on my own♡
1. Don’t eat junk, including sugary drinks, McDonald’s, Velveeta and other highly processed foods.
2. Sweat for 20 minutes a day with some sort of vigorous exercise.
3. Get 20 minutes of full-on sun–get outside and soak it up.
4. Eat authentic, non-industrial food and fix it from scratch; leftovers are the benchmark of good eating habits.
5. Drink half a gallon of water every day–filtered good water, not city water.
6. Sleep at least 8 hours a night, preferably 8.5.
7. Watch no more than 2 hours of TV news a week but spend 1 hour a day watching clean comedy and laugh your head off. Laughing until your sides hurt is a good thing; practice it daily. Reading joke books counts too. I have a book of elephant jokes: they’re hilarious. “Why did the elephant wear red sneakers? To hide in the strawberry patch. Every see an elephant in a strawberry patch? Works pretty good doesn’t it?”
8. Spend one day a week with ALL interactive electronics shut off. Play no video games.
9. Write down your life’s mission statement and post it on the fridge and bathroom mirror. This is your legacy and what you want said at your eulogy.
10. Make a list of everyone you detest and forgive them, then pray a blessing over them.
If you could add one thing to my recipe, what would it be? Bonus question: do you think this recipe (plus your ingredient) would beat vaccines in the struggle to defeat covid and its variants?
It’s interesting how in these later years of life you find what is of great importance to you. My first part of my married life was trying to fit into my new family that I had married into as well as others that married into my family.
My goals, plans or dreams of course were soley related to my husband and that new relationship. Every family has its way of operating things you say, do and act. You are trying to learn how to fit in and be accepted. Sometimes I think you loose a part of who you are personally as you change to fit in. Some of these changes are good and some, well maybe not so great.
I’ve had a chance to really look back at things and I think there are some things I would change or do differently if I have a chance. The dynamics within these family’s are always interesting as we go through life sometimes they are tested. Even with all the things you do whether they appear as they are or perceived as something different is of course always how those around us perceive them. You can be well meaning and act that way but it is not perceived or accepted that way and change the dynamic. These dynamics can change relationships not always for the good, what once was tight is now loose and non-existent or barely hanging on.
So back to my title My Tribe. Because life changes and relationships change you do need to find your tribe. My tribe will share my belief system, my dreams and some of my goals. Don’t be afraid to accept that your tribe may contain more members that are not blood but say a “kindred spirit”. Now that doesn’t mean that you don’t care for your “family” what it means is that you surround yourself with those who have your back, stick with you, will be honesty with you and love you for who you are and not judge or treat you differently. They are the ones who rally around you and support you without question and without asking, they just do it…. they have your back always♡.
I am finding this now, my tribe those that pray, share, support and have my back regardless. It’s amazing it’s a community. It’s like we are a bunch of eclectic beautiful people, some share the faith and some don’t. The whole point of life too is not to just surround yourself with only believers if you don’t have non believers in your life how else would you share your faith♡.
So I am looking forward to this next chapter, my new tribe. It’s amazing how God brings these new people into your life and how we need each other. We share the same views and we support oneanother automatically and its so nice to have those who beleive and share similar views. I have decided to focus my energy on those that share my tribes views, and pour myself into those lives. You can’t change what others in your life believe or think if they are not willing to look at it. But you can continue to pray for them as usual ♡ and hope for change.
We are living in such interesting days and now more then ever we need our tribe. We need Jesus!
I am grateful for those in my life that share my faith, my homesteading life, the simplistic approach to life. It’s a remnant not a huge group but a family.
So if you are trying to weather all the changes that have gone on the last year and a half plus find your tribe, pray that God will lead you to the right people. Encourage one another, life each other up, support each other and share your dreams and passions even though there is not much time left in the this world we still need to plan and live and share Jesus.
Love y’all
We all bring our quirky personality to the tribe. It’s awesome♡
We want to wish all our friends and family a very, very blessed Thanksgiving.
We are so grateful for God’s hand, protection, leading and guidance this year. We started the year with many uncertainties, but He was so good to bring us through.
I had some health challenges that began at the beginning of the year and now into the fall I am finally getting better.
God has taken care of our needs providing time in and again. God provided Russ and Bob with work and they have not gone without the means to provide for thier families.
The gardens even though not as full as they would normally be for veggie boxes provided a beautiful harvest that was eaten fresh all season and now canned and stored on our shelves for fall and winter.
We have an amazing stack of firewood going into the basement that will provide our old house with plenty of warmth this winter season.
The animals growing out in the barn area will provide lots of food for days, weeks, and months.
So we have so much to be grateful for and we thank God for the protection, health and provisions.
We also thank God for the freedom and ability to share our faith and His love to those around us♡.
If you don’t know Jesus, get to know Him he is the greatest part of our lives and He makes such a difference.
I have been cooking a lot lately with all the harvested veggies and fruits from the gardens. Either cooking fruits down to jams, jellies, sauces or pickled, sauced, salsa or blanched veggies. It’s a daily event on the homestead farm I think I almost eat breath sleep it…. lol.
So 8 years ago when we moved here we had to buy a few appliances as there wasn’t any that came with out old farmhouse. So we purchased a new but cheaper fridge and stove cause we knew we would eventually get a new set for our new kitchen.
The new kitchen isn’t ready yet but a new stove is definitely on the list of things we need to buy… this week. I have worked Matilda really hard and she has now decided that….. she is not going to work hard at all. So a big plate and a small plate now no longer work:(
I knew a new stove was in the makings but I didn’t think it would come until the spring when we have the walls redone in the what is going to be the new kitchen. Funny thing is I have been hearing about the shortages and I hope with all my heart we can find something….. even a floor model for sale so that we actually get a new stove.
So for now, I won’t be cooking too many things all at once and I will be utilizing my crock pots more often till we find a replacement for Matilda the stove.
Now I know some of you are saying you can repair it or replace the broken parts and I agree, but there are so many things that you just cannot buy anymore or rather still you can order…… it just might take a year or so to get the part……
Looking forward to I hope a glass top stove again and cooking up a storm again.
Absolutely loving our old fashioned life, God bless♡
I forgot to take before pictures to show you how they all looked but I do have the after pics and they look awesome.
Rusty cast ironware…… no problem. All you need to do is take a scouring pad to the pans. Scrub them down really well with hot soapy water and then dry them well.
Now you need to oil them. You can use olive oil coconut oil or if you don’t mind the not so great oils a vegetable oil. Because I like to make sure that we use the best products for our health I usually go with olive or coconut oil. Pour a little in the pan and spread it over the entire surface with a cloth or paper towel. Make sure that any excess is wiped off. I place foil on the bottom rack of the oven racks and set the oven to 300. I then turn the pans upside down and let them rest in there for an hour. I turn off the oven and let them cool.
Once cooled they are ready to use. We love cooking with it if you have a well seasoned pan with a nice smooth surface then you basically have a non stick pan that does not leach nasty chemicals into your food.
So I was making a batch of pears in syrup last night. I peeled the pears and then chopped or sliced the pears leaving the center core with the skins behind. Normally people just toss the scraps into your compost pile but ot today♡.
I am going for a every little bit matters or counts attitude. So the big bowl of scraps went into my big pot I added several cups of water and started to cook up the scraps. I now have a beautiful pear juice and that is going to turn into pear jelly. It’s amazing what you can get out of food when you are a bit frugal with the harvest.
So the pear scraps juice is draining and will do so for the best 2-3 hours through a cheese cloth. You end up with a nice clear juice. We will update you later with the final product
I will be doing some pear sauce later today and with those scraps I will be making some pear cider vinegar.:) look for that post later.
There are four seasons in a year winter, spring, summer and fall.
Each season has its pros and cons. We sometimes like one more then the other.
One thing for sure is that life also has seasons with family, friends, personal relationships and business relationships. In these seasons they don’t all stay the course. Some are lush and plentiful others are dry and barren. Each season that we travel through creates the person we are. I have notice in the seasons of life some seasons are much harder to navigate through with many scratches, bruises and scars. But we do get through the season and are better for it.
The season that I am traveling through right now is one of those hard seasons. I have really good days and I have hard days. But, I know that when I get through this season should the Lord tarry I will be a better person.
I find the family challenges harder on my heart. It’s not easy to balance everything and keep a level balance thought process through it all. But I am slowly working through them with God’s help.
I have an amazing loving and supportive husband and I find he says words of wisdom that really guide be through. I am grateful to God for that.
Although I don’t understand why this season with family is so difficult and why it is going on for so long. I guess there are some qualities of character that God is working on. I find the drought is hard to accept at times but if I trust the almighty he will fill the voids in my heart of hearts. So I guess if we continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness God draws us close.
Kind of a deep post but sometimes we neglect to share that we go through struggles. Being able to be vulnerable not needy or insecure or looking for attention just being real. I don’t say what I did above because I’m looking for someone to feel sorry for me I say it so that if anyone else is going through a rough spell they know they are not alone.
Stay strong, lean on God for his love and understanding and peace. Read the word and talk with him daily.
We got some work done on the house in the last little while. Kinda picking away at tasks.
One of the projects was the ceiling over the stairs. We needed to make the ceiling just a tad taller and replace the old lathe and plaster. Because I couldn’t do any blog’in earlier in the year I am going at it now.
Turned out really well and the upper hallway looks so much nicer.
It’s been a while but I have a good couple of reason I’ve been away, which most of you already know.
I am taking part in an awesome challenge from a fellow homesteader. It’s called the every little bit counts challenge, her challenge usually runs the month of August. But because I found out about late I am still going to participate
So I have been preserving like a crazy canner…. all kinds of yummy stuff. I’m really looking forward to enjoying the hard work.
I have been water canning, pressure canning, freezing, and drying. I am learning so much it’s awesome. Gaining food preservation skills that I never had before….. confidences that aew pretty cool.
It’s not just pickle veggies either. It’s chicken and beef broth, sauces, soups, stews, cubed potatoes, corn, beans and a bunch of fruits too.peaches in water, syrup, old fashion jams, and a few new things…. the fruit leathers are cool too.
So if the world doesn’t end and we have next summer, I’m really looking forward to other stuff I can do as well.
Just check out the pictures below nit bad I’d say♡
Shroomy, what the heck are ya doing now? Anyone who knows me, knows that I love growing things, bugs(mealworms), seeds, plant cuttings, veggies, flowers….. and yes fungi. I have a fig tree, banana tree, a lemon tree plus house plants and succulents, as well as the big garden and the greenhouse.
Bugs – meal wormsLemon treeBig garden
Not exactly sure when my first interest peaked in shrooms, we love to eat them…. oh wait, I remeber, Richters. Now I remember. I was going through their seed catalogue and I came across mushroom growing kits….. Peak… my curiosity was stung. I ordered two kits which seem to take a lifetime to get here and I had fun trying them out. That of course started my big interest in…. can someone like me grow mushrooms from scratch? Or what. I tried a few things like stem cloning, spore gathering. I am certain Rusty was thinking oh boy what is she up too now!! I am sure he has days when he thinks she’s gonna turn the house into a big inside garden, that’s probably his ongoing or occuring nightmare.
I started to dig into the “dark” world of shrooms and discovered that they do not solely grow in the dark and perhaps I could try my hand at it. I found guy in Montreal that sells kits and I decided hey what the heck lets see if I can grow these for our spot at the farmers market. I researched a bunch of stuff and voila I was able to grow some oyster mushrooms for the market. But then spring happened and that lead to summer and we were full on into our vegetable growing season. I cloned a few mushrooms in that time but mostly just for our consumption. But I was intrigued. I just didn’t have the room to do it, as I was pushing the limits of my microgreen growing room. So it took a back burner for a season or so.
Order from Montreal Farmers market yields
Fast forward some time to today. I have done tonnes of research, tried several interesting things with shrooms and I have a permanent grow room with some space to spare so I’m gonna give it another go. I purchased some professionally grown liquid mycelium, which took forever and a day to get here do to covid interferring with all aspects of mailing services. As well I picked up a few things I will need to get growing…. and I can’t wait to see what is going to happen.
Growing mushrooms alongside of microgreens really does compliment each other as there are some similarities for growing and the rest well, I won’t bore you. I have an area set up in my germination room for the liquid mycelium to colonize my grain spawn so I better get going.
I was able to do some prep work, grain spawn, jars etc. So yesterday I went down into my still air room to inoculate my grain spawn. Very careful not to spread any unwanteds, I injected each jar, label it and placed it on my shelf in the germination room. So now is a waiting game. Wait to see if the mycelium cultures are happy and want to grow. If I am successful with the grain spawn then we will have a good variety of oysters, a colorful bunch and some others that I will leave as a surprise.
Look at all that fun-gi’s…. I couldn’t help myself♡
I don’t think its hard to grow them, but then again that’s just me. Others may look at it and go, hokey dina thats to involved or complicated or scary to try. Again, I said I love to grow. This is just another area of growth for me. A hobby that I absolutely love and glad that I could do here on the little red soil island that could.
So stay tuned to an update or two as I am either wildly successful or a bit of a failure. Just so you know I don’t look at my growing failures as failures, just learning experiences that make try different methods and ways to achieve a growing end…… see ya back at the old house, old farm or in my muddy boots♡ soon.
Muddy Boots, Old Houses and The Farm 