Oh My Gosh...A Whole Month? Really??

I honestly have no idea where the last entire month went! I know that time seems to fly by faster the older you get but...sheesh! Oh well, on to the updates...

You know, I realized just recently that I have never really gotten around to explaining the name of the blog. Our land, where the animals are, was raw when we bought it. It is only semi-raw now. Is there such a thing? Ok, maybe not but the land is coming along. Anyway...the name....it has a creek. A really nice one right at the bottom of the driveway. Actually, it had 2 creeks but we changed all that...*Appropriate time warp music inserted here*

Here's our land when we first looked at it a year ago:

So after the slight stroke my husband and I both experienced we went to work.

We had to actually get ON to the land to see what we were dealing with so:

We started clearing....and found rock.....ticks, chiggers and rocks. My dreams of huge sprawling gardens was crushed. But did we get discouraged? Well, of course! We may be adventurous but we are not insane. We expected the incredible amount of trees but the quality of the land underneath sort of spooked us a little. So we continued:

We now have a stone driveway. The truck....now don't laugh at it, it's very sensitive.....is actually sitting right over the creek.
 We put in a 20' galvanized steel culvert pipe and had the stone delivered. The fun continued:

Then we got electric! Now we're really livin! Ya, I know, some homesteaders really go the total Green route and this step would not have been so important. But we are definitely not that brave...yet. I do think that Green energy options such as solar and wind are in our future but we are taking this whole homesteading thing one step at a time. Oh ya, just as a novelty we took this:

Amazing, isn't it?!?

Now, where to go from here. We, of course, put together all the necessary areas for the animals but what about us? We had no idea. We had an idea before driving all the way down here about a year ago but it changed along the way. We got comfortable living where we are...typical 3 bedroom home, nice yard, great neighbors. But were we doing what we came here to do?

We were doing some soul searching this last month and we realized that we weren't. We wanted to experience homesteading. It's why we came here. Instead we were running back and forth to the farm-in-the-making at least once per day to take care of the animals but we were not making anymore progress towards our goal. To be sure, it was the path of least resistance, the kids are comfortable, all utilities available, etc.  But it wasn't....exactly....right. And we sort of knew it all along. We kept saying "we'll get there" but we were doing nothing more to make it happen. We got wrapped up in the aspects of daily living.

So, The Epiphany: We do not want to turn our backs on this chance. And we won't. We wanted to homestead, period. And this is what we are going to do. We are moving. Away from the house and to the land that we should have been on by now. We are looking at it as a temporary setback and we getting back on track towards where we want to be. This is what we've done so far:

We bought a house trailer and put it on the land. This will be our temporary home until the house is built. It has 2 bedrooms so enough rooms for the kids to have their own space. Not huge by any standards but very livable once it's totally cleaned up. That pool in the back.....not for swimming. It's actually the start of our water storage. Don't Panic! We are not going to drink the creek water! I say this cause I know at least one of our older boys will have a heart attack otherwise. We have the drinking water thing under control. We are only using the pool temporarily to store large amounts of general use water. Filtered and treated with chemicals it will serve it's purpose for now, until we get the well drilled anyway.

We did sort of have a snag with this little project. Check this out:

This is what we call Old Creek Road. It is a dry creek bed about 12' past the creek at the bottom of the drive. We actually created it by diverting the flow farther up the property so that it funnels into the main creek. Boy, did we think we were clever. But we created a little problem as we found out....once we got the trailer stuck in the old creek bed. Yup, we did! And, it's funny now, but it was not funny at all then. Thank God my husband is really a genius with getting us out of trouble. I do not believe our truck will ever forgive us. It took us 2 days to get that trailer up where it is. And it's staying put.

We have so much more to do. But we are not dragging our feet this time. We will be living on this land by Mid-May the latest. We better be ready because it's going to be all up to us to make the kids OK with this. There will be adjustments for them but I think they'll do well if they sense that we're OK. And maybe, just maybe, even with their difficulties, we are worrying way too much. Kids are so resilient and they learn to adjust to what we expect them to. We'll see. No matter what, as long as we're together, things will be just fine.

And so, back to the original point of this post. The name! One of the first things I was awed by when we checked out the land was the sound of the creek. I loved it! And I still do. It's such a perfect sign of life in an otherwise raw and barren area that it takes my breath away. We intend on making the most of it...digging out larger areas further into the land and, maybe, creating a small pond.  It was the thing that struck us most about the property and we knew, even at the beginning, that it defined it. For us, there could be no other name but Our Little Creek Farm. :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

When I first started this blog I thought "Oh yes, I can post every other night, like clockwork". Boy was I so wrong. I am learning that life kinda gets in the way of that plan. I can't believe how the days fly by. Here's a long overdue update on our adventure. :)

Chickens:

So, this morning my hubby goes to rescue the post office again from the box that will drive them crazy. If you've never heard just how loud chicks can get, especially when they are cold and hungry, you'd be in for a surprise. This box was supposed to contain 10 replacement chicks from our first order. We actually lost 16 but we just wanted to replace 10 of them. We open the box to find....not 10....not 20...but 25! Boy Murray McMurray is so on my Christmas list for next year! As nice as it was to get so many more chicks for free, we realized, we had a problem.

We had moved the 10 chicks from the first batch into their new chicken condo brooder. I swear, these chicks are livin' large. Check it out:

We put this new brooder together from cardboard boxes that we had and made the sides high so as the chicks grew out they had enough room and couldn't get out. They really had a great time exploring when we first put them in. But now....

This is what the setup looks like. Yup, a brooder within a brooder! Why? Well, this could all just be silliness on my part and a big waste of time but I wanted to be cautious. You see chicks grow fast. No I don't mean just fast. I mean super fast! Faster than I thought. And I didn't know how the new chicks would fair competing against the week old chicks for food and water. I was afraid they would get trampled on and not make it. I also wanted to feed them the mash of food with sugar water which helped the older ones so much. But, I didn't want to feed it to the older ones anymore. So, voila! The idea of the brooder hut. I figured that we could use the same heating lamp and protect the newer ones all at the same time. However, I did not expect McMurrays to be so generous and I only planned on sizing the box for 10 chicks! So, I'm hoping to only keep them in for a few days and introduce the 2 broods soon. I'll keep you updated.

Snow:

Am I the only one surprised at the amount of snow here?!? I was used to blizzards and drifts mega-feet high up north but, here? We woke up to more snow today after a storm on the weekend and apparently more coming on Tuesday. While the amounts do not even come close to what they are putting up with up north, it is surprising me a little.

I suppose I don't mind the snow so much as the cold. I am surprised at how cold it gets and the forecast is below freezing for the next few nights. All I know is, that furry Phil better be right or he's gonna get some hate mail from Arkansas.


Rabbits:

All sorts of stuff going on with the bunnies. Susie Q's 5 kits are 2 weeks and doing very well. She's such a good mom that we don't worry about her at all. She seems to know just what to do and just when to do it. For example, on Saturdays we thoroughly clean all hutches. We just spot clean throughout the week but Saturdays we get serious. Anyway, Susie Q keeps her hutch pretty clean especially the nest area. Well, I check on the babies and...surprise!...they are all uncovered and looking back at me. Just the day before she still had them all cocooned up under the nest. It seems she just knows when they are ready.
Miss Millie is due to kindle within the next day or so and I think we are in luck this time. She has the nest all prepared and is busy, busy pulling fur. A great sign and I hope to have a positive update with pictures soon! :)
In related news, but not quite so cute, we culled 5 kits on Saturday. I will admit this was a huge step for us and questions arose as to just how to go about it. I have not included pictures. I know that some people do the step-by-step thing with pics on their blogs when they butcher out their animals. I prefer to give you my impression of what the experience was for me rather than the graphic image.
I had totally focused myself on the fact that these were not pets. And for any other rookies out there, do the same. It's easier when you do not allow yourself to get too attached. I do spend time with our breeders but I purposely avoided spending too much time at the grow-out hutch. I'm glad I did. My hubby did the dispatching and did a humane and clean job of it. We both did the butchering and skinning together. It's harder to skin a rabbit than I thought but I really wanted to keep the pelts intact for use. I think we did a great job for newbies.
So, things I learned.
First, I am no butcher. I need to perfect my butchering skills to make the process faster. It's not always easy to see what you should cut where. And questions like " Is that good meat" or " What the heck is THAT!" were flying all over the place. Of course, I realize that's part of learning and overall it worked out ok.
Second, the smell! Oh gosh! I watched a hundred and one videos on butchering rabbits on youtube. I read bunches and bunches of blogs and forum info on the process. I was ready. I knew what to do. But.....the smell! No one tells you about the smell! lol    I mean, it's not god awful but it would have been nice for just one person to suggest that a little Vicks under the nose might be good. So, I am making sure I let anyone know who has not done this yet.....use the Vicks....trust me.
Third, there's a lot less meat than I thought. Overall out of five 11 week old rabbits we probably got 2.5 lbs of meat. Now, figuring in my bad butchering skills and the fact that most people wait till 12 weeks or more to cull, I can see how it's so little. But, even with those things in mind, the cost is way too much. You have to figure in all the feed to get them to the 11 weeks and, at the cost of all that, we could have been eating steak all weekend. So, we definitely have to do the calculations on it and, again, it's all part of learning.
Fourth, I like rabbit. Yup, we crock potted the meat after soaking in salt water for 12 hours as suggested. We cooked it in a onion/garlic bbq kinda sauce. It fell right off the bone and was really good. It tastes a lot like chicken but is milder. We will have the rest of it over rice tonight.
Now, would I do it again? I think so. I do think that to make it worth all the feed cost and work involved you absolutely have to have a use for the meat other than your own consumption. Chicken, on the whole, is much cheaper to raise and just as much work to butcher. And you get much more meat out of a chicken at 12 weeks than a rabbit. So, we've been researching things like using it for cat food. there are some great recipes for organic cat food and rabbit seems to be a favorite so we may try that out. And, of course, being able to use the pelts to make things helps defray the cost as well. The pelts were washed well and frozen for tanning in a few weeks. I can't wait to try it and I'll provide a step-by-step of that process.

Last, but never least.....coffee cake! The best sour cream coffee cake recipe I've found yet. Delish and so easy!  See those missing pieces....ya, that was me. :)

Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream(or, in my case, whatever you have left that you don't want to go bad :)
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
3 teaspoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
walnuts or almonds, optional

In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugar and sour cream. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Combine dry ingredients (except the brown sugar,cinnamon and nuts) and beat well.
Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon for the topping. If you have walnuts or almonds you would add it to this topping mixture. Generously grease a tube pan and put about 1/3 of the topping mixture in the bottom. Add about 1/2 of the batter on top of that. Put the remaining topping mixture on the batter layer and then top that with the remaining batter. Bake in a 350F degree oven for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Make sure to put your oven rack up high so the topping at the bottom of the pan is less likely to brown too much. If you like icing on the top combine powdered sugar with a couple of tablespoons of milk and a little vanilla(the amounts of these are really to taste and not specific). Whip up well and drizzle over the top of the cake while still a little warm but not hot. Enjoy!


Well, I think I've updated things for now. Off to shovel, check on chicks, dishes, laundry...and just where did I leave those 2 kids!?!

Pickin Chickens

Did I mention we are expecting chicks? Well, they're here! Some of them anyway. Here are the ones that are left.

We ordered 25 brown egg layers from Murray McMurray Hatchery. Their prices were reasonable and they had a lot of choices. They even threw in a "rare chick" with our order. Of course...we have no idea which one it is.  We have no idea what any of them are!

We used an Graco portable crib that we had as a brooder. We, of course, removed all the children first. ;)  We have our heat lamp up above (red bulb) and they are in the basement with the woodstove so it's cozy warm. We made sure that each one of them drank water and they all know where the food is. Some are eating better than others. And some of them are scaring the heck out of us because they stop and sleep almost instantly! lol

We have 15 left that made it through shipping. Since we are in the middle of an ice storm and frigid cold I am surprised that any of them made it. Eight were gone before we even opened the box and two followed with-in 1 hour. One suddenly passed several hours later. There are two that have us concerned and we are tending to them continuously. We made a mash out of the chicken starter and some sugar water and it seemed to perk all of them up. We are getting replacements next week for all the goners so kudos to McMurrays for good service.

Searching around the internet for pictures of chicks so we can try to identify the specific breeds has been fun. So many of them look alike at this age that we decided just to wait and figure it out when they grow up. Feel free to identify them if you can! :)

Bunny Business

Let's talk rabbits for a moment. Ok, maybe, a few moments.

Since we are just starting out with our little rabbit herd we only have 2 does and 1 buck for our breeding stock. Our does are crosses between NZ, Californian, whatever else....they are mutts. Our buck is a Standard Rex. When we first started out I had no idea how much "personality" these little jumpers would have. They definitely all have their own and it makes for an interesting mix.

This is Susie Q. She is 10lbs. of pure love. She is a good momma and currently has 6 kits only 5 days old. She's been easy to breed and has a great personality. Of course....only with me. She knows when my husband comes anywhere near her hutch and takes great offense at this. It is truly funny how she can be such a sweetheart with me and such a feisty bunny with him. Guess she's a male hater.....of course that does not include her mate.

This is Thumper.  He's beautiful boy with a personality to match. He knows his job and does it well. He's also a neat freak. No kidding! This guy keeps a neat and clean hutch and when you add hay he will straighten it all out before eating. It is really interesting to watch. Of course, not every bunny is neat.

Meet Miss Millie. This, so far, is the best picture I have been able to get of her. I believe she feels that she is above the pics taken with the cheap camera that we have and would prefer a professional photographer. She is a diva to the max. She keeps us cleaning continuously as she feels she deserves a maid. She has only kindled once for us and she had only one stillborn. So, why keep her you ask? I believe in the 3 tries rule. She is bred again now and is due to kindle in a few weeks. Hopefully we will have pics of kits at that time. If not she's got one more try before the stew pot. And speaking of stew pot....

These are the remaining kits from Susie Q's last litter. They are almost 10 weeks now and are growing by leaps and bounds. These 5 are up for sale and, if sold, will be gone in time for the new litter to take over the "nursery". If they don't sell they are on their way to freezer camp. This will be my first experience at processing, butchering and eating a rabbit. I'm sure there will be some very amusing moments but I am eager to try. Internet junky that I am, I have read everything I could get my eyes on about the process. I intend to keep the laptop close by when I try this.

While I am eager to progress forward with our rabbit interests we are sort of at a crossroads. We have been asked for "whites" quite a bit and we had no idea that there was a preference for these. So, off we go to the yahoo groups and such to find some New Zealand white breeding stock. I don't think I can bring myself to just give up Susie Q and Thumper since they are doing so well so, we might keep them just for our use for now. Time will tell. And if I end up hating the taste of rabbit? Well, then all this will just be another learning experience for the homestead. To be continued for now......

Homeschooling....no fooling!

I have a very high opinion of homesteaders, as a whole. I consider them brave, creative and intelligent people who have a drive for what they believe in like no others. My husband and I took to this like flies to honey. We dove in, while apprehensive, with gusto and were confident in our abilities. But, I must confess, my introduction into homeschooling was not the same. While I had definite ideas of WHY I wanted to homeschool, I had no definite ideas of HOW I was going to homeschool. Things have changed and I have found my stride but I thought it would be good to show the process I went through. If anyone else is thinking about homeschooling but is not sure about this whole idea, join the group. I was there, did that, bought the T-shirt. But I made it work for me and you can too.

First, I must confess....I was absolutely terrified of my two little guys! No kidding. The thought of trying to teach them and handle all the behavior issues that come with autism gave me nightmares. Don't let those two cute little faces fool you. They needed much more than just a curriculum based teacher and I had no idea if I was up to the task. It took me several weeks to even think about how to approach it.

Next, the big question.......what homeschooling philosophy would I follow?  Would I choose Unit Studies or a Standard Curriculum Base? Would I be a rigid scheduler or be more of an un-schooler? What would be my approach? I finally figured something out! That I was confused. :)  And for all my determination I almost tossed the whole idea right there. It took me so long to realize that you don't need to follow one philosophy, you can use ideas from them all. If I am forced to give my style a name it would be "eclectic". I use a basic curriculum as a foundation but add all sorts of other reading and projects. And, yes, I do discard anything that I do not feel is necessary for them.

And finally, the ultimate challenge. Staying the course. What to do when they do not want to do any work and you truly could use a day off too? Do you give in or push forward? Understandably, dealing with their unique disabilities often answers this question for me. However, I do push just not always in the same direction. If we are working on something that just isn't up to their standards of fun, well, I move on to something else. I worry less now about how MUCH we learn in one day and understand that, no matter what, they learn SOMETHING everyday.

So, to summarize, I love homeschooling them. Yup, that's it. And that's what will do it for you too. If you truly desire to homeschool then you will do it. You will learn not to get caught up in all the technicalities and know that what you are doing is the best thing for them. You will learn to accept the "Are you sure about this?" from well meaning people with a smile and grace. You will learn what works and what doesn't and know steer clear of it. You will also learn.....the "LOOK". Yup, all the homeschoolers out there are now shaking their heads. The look....when the idea that you were trying to teach them actually gets through and hits home. When they understand a concept that you have been trying to get them to understand. And let me tell you, there is no greater joy. And it will reinforce exactly why you started this crazy roller coaster ride of homeschooling.

Living, learning and laundry detergent

Since we started this whole idea of homesteading one of my passions has been learning how to make all sorts of things myself. I already make my own bread and have done some basic cheese making, mostly farmers cheeses, but I have been eager to branch out.

So, off I go to the internet to find the "best ever homemade laundry detergent recipe". I found many, many....and many! All the very same basic ingredients just with different measurements. After a quick email from the wealth of information I'll call Mona, I was on my way to create my masterpiece!

I started with all the right stuff, and amazingly I was able to find it all at Walmart. I set out the Borax, the Washing Soda and the Fels-Naptha. I got out my huge pot for melting down the soap and proceeded to "cook".  I decided on this recipe:    
                                                                                   1 pint of boiling water
                                                                                   2 bars of Fels Naptha
                                                                                   2 cups of Borax
                                                                                   2 cups of Washing Soda
                                                                                   2 Gallons of Water
Ok, so you shave the bars of soap into your pot and add the boiling water. This is what it looked like while it was melting.  

It took about 30-45 minutes for it to melt completely and I kept the pot on the stove on low to help it along. Then I removed the pot from the heat and added the Borax and the Washing Soda. I stirred til they were well incorporated. Then I added the 2 gallons of water. I stirred to mix it all up and as it was cooling this happened:

It thickened up just like soft custard! lol  I knew it was supposed to gel so I wasn't worried. I let it cool down enough and then decided to make a mess refilling some old detergent containers with my new concoction. Here's the process(mental note: buy more funnels)

And after the glorious mess, here's what I ended up with:

In total I ended up with approx. 2.5 gal of laundry detergent. After pricing out what it costs to make it and about how many loads I can get out of this amount, we priced it at about $.02 per load. Well, that certainly answered my question as to if it is worth it or not. But would it clean as well as my normal brand? As you can see, things like Tide with Bleach are never on my list. I'm a true bargain shopper and I've always been content with the products I buy.

Off to the next step....a load of laundry. I used between a 1/4 and 1/2 a cup of the detergent. The laundry looked and smelled clean. As a matter of fact, I loved the smell compared to my normal detergent. I was happy with the results. Needless to say....I'm hooked. I will definitely do this again.
My next project: getting everyone in the house to actually put the laundry IN the laundry basket! Wish me luck. :)

Being here....getting there....

Yup, this is my first ever blog post. No kidding. I'm 40sumthin' and I've never done this before. I am sure I'm going to love it though as the gift of gab is no stranger to me. Feel free to keep me in check, comment, advise, etc.

As to why start the blog....hmm....a few reasons.

My husband and I are originally from New England. We packed up, bought raw land in Arkansas, moved our two youngest children with us and are now working on building our homestead. Crazy some might say...adventurous others might chime in, but a little of both is my opinion. I thought it might be interesting for our family left back up north to follow us on our journey. I do believe our 3 older sons will find this incredibly amusing and a laugh or two at our antics may keep us closer.

No doubt, this has been an adventure with a serious learning curve. We were city folk...and I do mean city. We had no prior knowledge of keeping farm animals or growing enough food for the whole winter. We are certainly not even close to accomplishing everything we would like to but we are making little steps in a positive direction. I thought that it would be informative to chronicle our progress, mistakes and everything in between for anyone who would like to read about it. If we can help just one person with their homesteading journey it is worth the effort.

So let's start with a little about us. My name is Kathie and I am a stay at home mom. My husband, who everyone calls G, is my best friend and partner in crime. He puts up with me and that's no easy task. We have 5 boys...yup, I said 5 and all male! Our three oldest are in their 20's and are off on their own. We miss them and they are in our thoughts everyday. My most secret desire is to try to find a way to get them all closer to us.(hint, hint) Our two youngest are with us being only 9 and 7. They are both autistic and can be, I guess what you'd call "high maintenance". I home-school them both which is an adventure all it's own and, you bet, I'll blog about that too. We live in Cherokee Village, AR and have a 3 acre piece of raw land in Hardy. We are clearing it up at this time to get our farm up and running. Pictures to follow. At this time we have rabbits that we breed for meat and our new chicks are on their way. Hmm....might be a good time to put the brooder together. Oh well, it will get done. And I will take pictures and let you know how it goes.

As to our dreams....because this did start as a dream. We want to eventually get to the point where we can support ourselves without the worry of what happening with the economy. My husband still works a full-time job so, no...we did not go off the deep end. But, our dream is to be able to have enough forms of income from things like sales of animals and resale businesses, to be more self sufficient. I want to have my garden and no worry about whats been on or in my vegetables. I want to know where my food comes from and what went into it. I want to raise my own animals, know how to process them and have no worries about being low on food. I believe that we can do this and I hope you'll enjoy the journey along the way.

I intend to be brutally honest about our experiences. What works...what doesn't...what might but is not worth the time, that type of thing. Keep in mind what works for us, may not work for you. If I have one piece of advice for anyone it's...do not ever be afraid to try something. You never know what you can accomplish.

Til later