Home Life

From a recent post, most of you know we moved.  We were living in a cute duplex apartment in Erie (in the country, south Monroe Co.), and moved to a large house in south Toledo.  This is taking some getting used to - I’ve never been a city girl and my time living in a city prior to this was not for a long period of time!  We moved for a lot of reasons - first of all rent on this house is much less than what we were paying on the apartment in Michigan. Plus, the cost of gas and car insurance is less in Ohio.  With the option of public transportation now, we will be buying a bus pass and trying to avoid fueling our own vehicle as much as possible.  The move isn’t permanent, but hopefully it’ll get us by until (if ever?) the economy improves.

Anyway, I’m bringing some of the country home with me.  I’ve put a garden in that spans about 3/4 of the length of our yard and about 1/3 the width of the yard.  I’m hoping this garden will provide for our family’s needs until next harvest, with the exception of eating fresh vegetables which I’ll have to buy some over the winter (but I’ll also be keeping a supply of vegetables growing indoors over the winter to reduce what we’ll have to buy). But anything to put in meals I should have in my freezer or home canned in my pantry.  I want to give away any excess that we have (maybe make a little stand on my front yard), and grew more watermelons and pumpkins than we’ll ever need, and I have plans of just giving them away also to those in need.  Maybe next year I can sell or give away my extra seedlings to help encourage other families to garden because I have yet to see another garden in a backyard around here.

My husband is on the fence about chickens, but I’m totally for it.  The plan is to build a chicken tractor (a movable coop) or two (or three) to raise chicks in as babies and butcher when they’re mature (keep enough for our yearly supply plus a few extra for company, giving to those in need, and unplanned needs) and butcher all at once, or at least all during a certain time period and not year-round), then keep one tractor around with a few hens for eggs year-round.  The tractors, when not in use, can be stored on their side somewhere in the yard.   I think raising chickens might actually be a little better on the wallet than meat rabbits, which are our next option.  However, rabbits are quiet and chickens aren’t totally silent…

My husband and I are building a fence for my garden today with spare wood we have laying around.  My dogs (3 of them) are thrilled with having a backyard to run and play in (my Vizsla actually sprained a leg from all of the stair climbing and free running he’s suddenly had access to!  he’s fine now!) and the garden is fair game to them.  If I want to harvest anything this year I need to keep them out!

We’re also going to build a compost bin.  I brought my compost from the apartment which I kept in a rubbermaid tote.  Currently the pile is still in the tote until we get the bin built in the back corner of our yard. 

I’m looking for a container to collect rainwater in, so I can use that to water my garden instead of city water.  I’ll connect that to my downspouts.   I’m also going to find a way to drain my washer water into a container to use outside, once we use up the detergent we first bought for our new washer (high efficiency washer - we had laundry piling up to do and grabbed the cheapest detergent we could find to get us by).  Then I’m going to mix up a batch of my home made detergent which is environmentally safe, and use the washer water to water my garden and lawn also.  I have to find a way to be able to easily connect and disconnect from the collection bin though, because I don’t want to use the dirty water from when I wash cloth diapers.

Now that we are living in a house with a backyard, there is so much more we can do.  but, we are renting and that does put a damper on some things.   I have ideas popping into my head every day.  Solar panels are another thing we’re interested in, but I admit to knowing nothing about them… Can they be easily removed?  We’re renting and don’t want to put the expense into buying them unless we can take them to our next residence.  Our landlord will not pay to have them put on, so if we did something like solar panels we’d need to be able to take them with us and restore regular electricity to the house before leaving.  

I’ve started a blog about our adjustment to city life, and how we’re homesteading in the middle of the city.  If you’re interested, feel free to check it out.  It’s taken us a full month to move (my husband has injured himself a few times and had a hospital visit or two… I’m pregnant while also chasing after three young children but ended up taking on the brunt of the move… Needless to say, things didn’t move as quickly as we had hoped.  We’re still unpacking!). 

So there has been a lot to do, not to mention the backyard is/was (we are spending hours outside each day cleaning the backyard up) overgrown with vines,  bushes and small trees, my garden is the first garden that has been there in years at the very least so I had a lot of work to get it ready.  Don’t forget about usual house cleaning, caring for my three children 4 and under, homeschooling AND running my business from home (I have my own office now! YAY!), that’s left me with very little free time to blog.  I’m working on it though.  I have a vision and each day we’re a little bit closer.

We moved spur of the moment and I wont be able to continue these meetings after the first scheduled ones so I figure why even bother having a meeting if I can’t continue them. WIth the cost of gas, and where we live now, it’s just too far!

So the homesteading and homeschooling meetings are going to be cancelled. If anyone wants to take them over, feel free.

We took the opportunity to move our of our duplex into a 4 bedroom house all to ourselves and couldn’t resist. ;-)  So now we’re living in South Toledo.

Homesteading & Self Sufficiency Group

May 19th in the Community Room at Bedford Library.  6-7pm (we can schedule longer meetings in the future).

Topic will be vegetable and herb gardening with the goal of self sustainability.  We will cover in ground gardens and container gardens.  I’ll provide some “how to” information on making your own gardening supplies, planning gardens, figuring how much you’ll need to plant and more!

Have knowledge on gardening?  Please contact me - you’re welcome to speak on the topic of your choice at this meeting!  If we have a lot of people offering advice, I’ll see about scheduling the meeting a bit longer.

What to bring: Your favorite gardening resources to share (internet or book), your favorite “from scratch” recipe preferably from the garden, and yourselves.  Children are more than welcome - I’ll have my three there (4 and under).

I’ll probably call tomorrow to schedule the meeting.  I’m looking at a Monday or Tuesday evening around 6pm.  Probably at Bedford library.

Does this sound doable?

Any topics you’d be interested in learning about at the first meeting?

The book gives permission to freely pass around, so I am willing to e-mail anyone the cookbook who asks for it.  It is in an .exe file.  I can’t upload it, but will e-mail it. my email is sarah@motherhoodnaturally.com

I was reminded of a fun memory I had as a child.  My parents had a crab apple tree in the backyard and each year we would end up with a bunch of apples on the ground.  My dad would always pick the apples up before mowing the lawn.  As a special incentive, he called my friends and I over and offered a penny for each apple we picked up.  We grabbed big coffee cans and set out to collect as many apples as we could.  That yard was cleared of apples in no time!

Maybe this idea can be applied to your backyard, garden, orchard or anywhere else you have fruits or veggies that have to be picked up (either ripe on the vine or rotting on the ground…)

An article from USA Today was recently brought to my attention at http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-08-11-homemaking_N.htm

I realise the article has a religious twist to it, but I can only imagine how helpful a course like this would be.  I hear so many wives (or women in general) who want to know how to bake, sew, clean, etc. but they don’t know how, don’t know where to go to learn, and in many cases (I see this in the younger wives these days) were not brought up in a household where homemaking was just a part of life.  I am finding people around my age were raised in homes where parents worked long hours, hired house cleaners, ate out of boxes, had machines or disposable products for nearly everything, etc.  The “skills” that are a part of home making are being lost.  I’ve decided that is not an option in my home, now that I have a family of my own, I want these skills to be instilled in them. I want them to be self sufficient.  I’ve buckled down and am learning new skills one at a time, and do believe I’ve come a long way.  My kids enjoy helping me clean, garden, cook, and otherwise keep our home.  I enjoy spending that time with them.  I often laugh at life before I had kids.  My husband and I would eat boxed meals, we’d let the dishes pile up in the sink, we’d buy everything (forget about making bread from scratch!), and cleaning was something we’d do once a week because we hated it!  Then, my firstborn arrived and I developed a passion for home cooked meals.  We ate a lot of burnt meals and I had a lot of “oops” moments as I learned the basics of cooking.  Cleaning became a priority, even organization became something we needed.  Once my second was born we were well on our way in the homemaking way of life, and then I started dabbling more in the skills that would help us achieve a higher level of self sufficiency.  Now I find myself studying life on a farm, livestock management and care, solar power, composting, gardening, alternative transportation, and dreaming of one day living on a peice of land big enough that we wouldn’t need to depend on stores for our basic needs.  My dream is to grow, hunt and raise all the food we’d need through the year.  Preserve it for the winter.  Ideally not have to rely on anyone for anything except ourselves. Who knows if it will ever become a reality, but the more I learn about the elements of self sufficiency, the more I find myself realising I can do more for our family - even living in our apartment!  It’s very exciting to me.

Anyway back on track - reading this article made me wish we had more programs available for those wishing to learn more about homemaking.  Let’s bring back these lost skills!  I, for one, am in favor of this article for a few reasons but wish there was something closer.

One thing I’m finding out is that homeschooling families are sort of getting back to basics.  Having the children in the home for more hours allows the family the time to learn new skills together and instill skills in the children that will last with them through their lifetime.  As we prepare to start my oldest daughter in preschool at home this fall, I am reminded that I do want homemaking to be a part of our curriculum.  I’ll be putting together our own curriculum for at least the first few years, and starting now I don’t think it’s ever too early to begin teaching these skills. However, in our home the kids learn how to help with upkeep as soon as they learn how to make messes, so it’s a process that will not change through schooling but I do see us getting a little more involved with homemaking in the coming years.  It’s not something I’m really planning on putting in the curriculum in terms of actual lesson planning, it’ll just happen as a normal part of life through our days.

If you’re interested, there are books and courses you can find on homemaking for children.  Many are used starting at about age 6 or so and if you’re lacking in the skills department this is something both mom (and dad?) and children can learn together.

I know I’ve mentioned this before - and I still really want to do it: get some homemaking meetings started.  Just something where us gals can gather and we can learn new skills, learn from one another and get back to basic, simple living.  Let life settle down a little bit  (we had our third born on Aug 14th, at home!) and I’ll start getting some ideas together for this.  It may not be a college course, but I think our community has a lot to offer and we can learn a lot from each other.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/home/1.php is a GREAT resource.

Hold your mouse over the “how to” section on the menu bar and click on your topic of choice from the drop down menu.  Guides to canning high and low acid foods, and more.  Super resource.

The seminar was mostly focused on canning.  I hope you can follow my notes - had to type fast at some points to get all the good information!

Food Preservation

Grow what your family eats and preserve it

Pro’s/Con’s of Preservation

-         canning: Food will be preserved without the need for electricity so you don’t need to worry about power outages, extra cost of electricity/appliance if you need to purchase/use an additional freezer.

-         More efficient to can than take up freezer space

-         Canned foods last longer than frozen

-         Less labor to freeze, no extra heat in the house while preserving, retain more nutritional content.

-         Dehydrating – not worrying about electricity, food stores on shelf, less space than canning.  Great for fruit.  Very easy, little preparation.

-         Freezing takes up a lot of valuable space

Basic Equipment to get started:

-         Good books to get: “Stocking Up” (covers a lot) and “Putting Food By” and Balls Blue Book of Canning (step by step pictures, good basic info, very inexpensive go to homecanning.com), “The Busy Persons Guide to Food Preserving”

-         Water bath canner or pressure canner (some can be used for water baths and pressure canning).  NOT Pressure cooker = is not going to be a proper piece of equipment for canning (not big enough to accommodate jars plus amount of headroom you need above jars to have enough water or enough pressure).  You can pressure cook in your pressure canner, but don’t can in your pressure cooker.  If you have a pressure canner you don’t need to invest in a water bath canner.

o       Water bath canning is less expensive and easier. Fruits, jams, relishes.  These can be found nearly anywhere and cost around $15-30 and can be found at garage sales and in thrift stores.  Used is fine if in good condition.

o       Big pots = don’t use unless you have a rack on the bottom to keep jars off the bottom of the pot.  Make sure enough water can be put over jars (about 2 inches) and at least about 2 inches above that so it doesn’t boil over and you need a tight fitting lid.

-         Jars: easy to find, thrift stores, grocery stores.  Just don’t use mayo or pickle jars – not made to withstand abuse they’ll go through in water bath or canner.  Canning jars are made to be used over and over again, thicker gauge of glass, lids are made to fit specifically on these jars and may not fit right on others.  Make sure any used jars don’t have any nicks or cracks around the top edge, if there is the slightest nick you won’t get a good seal and may break.  Use mason or ball jars. Stay away from collector type jars (or use for dried beans).

-         Lids – lids and rims are needed and usually come with new boxes of jars.  Instructions will be in the box.  Can be bought separately, good to stock up on (don’t want to run out when you need them).  Not expensive - $1 or $2 per package.

What gets pressure canned: all veggies and meats must be pressure canned with the exception of relish or pickled product, then water bath is ok. Acid content of product is raised by vinegar and acid is what is so important to help kill off bad bugs. Fruits naturally have high acid levels so water bath canning is ok. Sugar doesn’t add any “safety” and is not necessary to make product safe, just there to enhance taste.  Same with salt.  Only time you may need to use salt is for brines and things like that. Not necessary for canning.

How to be sure foods are safe to eat after first try canning: use recipes that are in valid canning books so you know proportions of vinegar to veggies will be safe.  Follow directions to the letter.  Have all utensils and equipment clean, clean work surface, fresh fruits and veggies (don’t ever use anything with mold).  Once you’ve followed instructions and have taken all the steps, pull jar out and first thing you want to do with water bath canned products is listen for the “ping” that happens when your jar seals (it’s the vacuum that sucks the lid down and creates the seal).  Once the jar cools completely, check each lid by pressing down on them in the center. If they’re concave and no give, you have a good seal.  If there is give or you can push down, you can re-can or put in the fridge to use soon, don’t store.  Once perfectly cool you can take screw bands off and check to see if any liquid or food material has seeped through the seal.  Occasionally some liquid gets sucked out of the jar and it’s ok as long as there is no actual food.  If there is liquid loss, put a towel on the counter, set the jar on the towel and try to pick it up by the lid. If there is a bad seal, the weight of the jar will pull the lid off otherwise the lid will stay on.  If these tests go ok, food is safe to store.  Once food is in storage, there are more signs you can look for before use: any sign of mold – don’t use, bubbling or gassiness in the jar – don’t use, bad odor or food looks slimy or has gotten really dark – don’t use (safely discard – burn if necessary or flush down toilet to keep out of the reach of children or animals).

Can when things reach the peak of ripeness.  Canning wont ripen, just cooks.  Canning with something sweet will help enhance flavor.

Alternatives to sugar: pomonas universal pectin (in health food stores, or urbanhomemaking.com), honey, all fruit/no sugar, stevia, artificial sweetners

Jars can sit on the shelf indefinitely.  Some books will tell you to can enough to use through the year ‘till next harvest.

Read instructions for your jars/lids because each manufacturer will have different instructions for prepping them. 

Jam/Jelly is fine if it’s runny as long as there is a good seal – makes good syrup, can thicken up with pomona’s universal pectin on a can-by-can basis.

Things that can effect crunchiness (with dill pickles): check water, if there is hard water it will effect crunchiness of pickles.  When pickles go in the brine, you want the water to be soft water.  Distilled water or hard water boiled for 15 minutes and left to sit overnight so sediment falls to the bottom of the pot (keep sediment on bottom when pouring) and use the clear water.

A drawback to canning, enzymes will be destroyed in the canning process.  But it is something that won’t take a lot of electricity to store.  There is still nutritional quality, especially things that don’t need to be water bath canned for long periods of time. 

Stocking Up or Busy Persons Guide to Canning, Home Canning Kit etc. can be found at website: www.urbanhomemaker.com I couldn’t find the Pumona’s Universal Pectin without doing a search on the site for “pectin” and it shows up under “Preserving” 

Also free newsletter at www.urbanhomemaker.com

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