Experiencing the Outdoors

We love the outdoors, over the last year it has been on the backburner because of many things. This was not intentional it just happens sometimes things that are important get put aside for things that seem more important but really aren't.

This week we have been outside a lot, Saturday we were out all afternoon cleaning the barn we have both doors wide open fresh air and sunshine streaming in. We then worked by our outside eating area. We have a firepit and it needed sprucing up and tables set up since we will be there for Christmas dinner.

Last night we ate dinner out there, foil dinners we cooked fish in them very yummy.

Wyatt loves to add leaves and pine needles to burn. We collect rocks, bricks, etc to put around the fire for the ring there are also headstones that couldn't be used for various reasons. Hubby working for a funeral home can bring home the oddest things.

As the sun went down we put candles on the table in old enamel cups. And we sat and waited for dinner to cook, salad bowls and dressing wait to be eaten.

This little guy came to visit, Ashley thought hee might be thirsty so set out water for him.

On our back porch we set up a little diner for the birds in the winter, they give us hours of entertainment and joy all winter long. This year I added a few things, an apple cored and then more holes made and stuffed with peanut butter and birdseed. One bird has visited it so it might not be a hit just yet.

These are always a hit with the chipping sparrows, peanut butter and birdseed on pinecones.

We also have a bird bath it is the one from the garden we put out during the summer. It might be cold for a bath but a drink is always nice with your meal.

This little guy and a friend came to visit yesterday, he tried the apple while his friend was at a feeder.  We also put out sunflower heads, cardinals love them and we also added this year a perch between the porch posts, the area gets busy in the deep of winter and waiting room space is always nice.

Since this will be my last post till after the holidays I hope each and everyone of you have joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Soap

Last week the kiddos and I made a batch of soap that we are giving as Christmas gifts. We didn't do anything fancy with it like we might have done for our own soap, every time we do, we do something like calendula infused oil, honey, oatmeal, etc. We added nature to our wrapping, this is a seed pod from a Sweetgum tree, I love these and have them scattered around the house along with pinecones.

We make hot-processed soap or crock-pot soap. I spent a long time researching, and this process works for me better than the cold-process.

Here is a how to with many ways to hot-process

Here is where I first learned about hot-process there are great pictures.

 Here I found great explanations for all the processes of soap making

This recipe we used olive oil, coconut oil, and beeswax. But you can use all kinds which really surprised me. Here is the lye calculator I use and it has a big list of oils, and there are also a fragrance calculator and measurement converter.

When I first starting looking into soap making I thought I had to use a set recipe, but have learned since you do not and we have had fun coming up with our own recipes.

Lye was also a consideration, where to get it? You can't just buy it in the store anymore, but I found this wonderful place AAA-Chemicals, that also sells the lye for making liquid soap. When I ordered I ordered both lyes and have made both soaps since and have had success with both.

Ashley and Wyatt help me, though when doing the lye I get to do it. Neither one of them want to and I feel better doing it myself. We had most of the supplies here at the house though not the plastic pitchers those I found at a yard sale for a quarter each and the crockpot at a yard sale to. But I am looking for a large one. The only new things I bought were the gloves, digital scale, thermometers but I don't use them with this process, and silicon baking pans for the molds which work great and were inexpensive.

We use two pitchers one to measure the water or herbal tea and one to measure the lye in. They are only used for this purpose and have written on them not for food everything we use is only for the soap except the crockpot that is cleaned well and we use that in the kitchen. I retired my stick blender to use just for soap since it is very handy for this.

I am looking next into making my own, chap stick(I have the almond oil soaking up calendula flowers), lotion bars, lotion this I have done but want to try different recipes.

I hope you give this a try someday if you have not and want to it isn't nearly as hard as I thought and as long as you keep in mind safety when working with lye take precautions it is actually fun.

Have a wonderfully blessed day.

Love,

Erika

Monday Musings

Friday we had a birthday in our home, Wyatt turned 15....so I now have a 17 yr old and 15
 yr old.  Its all very unsettling I am going thru what all moms go thru, at least that is what my mom keeps telling me, questioning if I have done right.

 He has found a love for taking pictures so we bought him a camera, a nice little digital that he can play around with and take black and white pixs etc. So Friday he took photos of everything he could I think, I downloaded a few of them this morning to share.

This one I took on my phone, we still have flowers blooming in gardens, on patios, etc. Though the nights are cool and the days lovely. I love Zinnias so during the summer we try to grow a lot they make great cut flowers to bring inside.

Our marigolds are still gigantic and blooming profusily even after our first frost we had last week.

These are growing all over the roadsides and fields. They are a lovely yellow that make country roads even lovelier to drive on.

Another of Wyatt's photos outside one of our little libraries this lovely rose has blooms covering it.

My photo, a nice roll on the warmed concrete walkway in the cool morning. Tummy warming is a favorite on these cool sunny mornings.

A pumpkin for a decorating contest the kids entered last week for 4H.  They did it together so they weren't competing againest each other. We also picked up their stuff that went to the state fair, they received blue ribbons for everything but one that one received a red one. But they are happy to get ribbons for all of it blue or red.

And one last photo of Wyatt's, he stayed home from church yesterday because he wasn't feeling well. Ashley decided to start feeling bad as well during church, the change of seasons seems to start sinus' draining and throats to get sore.

So while we were gone he slept and then took this photo. I bought this lamp for $1 and the glass chimney for a quarter I think. I love it since it can hang on the wall I haven't tried it out yet, but during the winter I love to light candles and oil lamps something very warming and soothing about them to me.

My husband tells me I need to blog though I think I have nothing to blog about. I have been going through the motions of life and nothing new has happened that I want to share. We have started slaughtering turkeys, the ducks are laying profusily, the hurt one is back with her friends and very happy, my dad is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, the kids get their wisdom teeth out in 3 weeks, I have fianlly found a place for all those (15) 5 gallon buckets of wheat I had lined up in the hallway since August when we sealed them up, I put my sour dough starter to bed the beginning of Sept and then forgot it, well it is still alive and thriving (thank goodness), the kefir is happy as well, I think red beans and rice are for dinner tonight, and the kiddos are and I have a very slow week this week which is good since last week was very hectic.

I hope all have a wonderful week and I will try to blog some this week and share some of our simple doings.

Love,

Erika

Monday Musings....

I hope this finds you rested from your weekend. We had a very uneventful weekend which is a good thing. Wyatt took some very pretty pictures of some flowers growing on our garden fence, one of them is below. I love this rich purple Morning Glory. The little white one is a White Cypress Vine, there are little red ones growing wild all over the roadsides right now. He is hoping to collect seeds from them.

Friday our escape artists escaped and roamed by the livingroom window, here they are waddling away from me back to where they belong. They are laying quite well we have lots of eggs in our fridge right now and we are giving them away to those who want them, though we are eating our share. It is nice to be able to share what we are blessed with.

This is Jemima Puddle Duck, she is in the hospital cage at the moment with a bum foot. She is quite unhappy, so Saturday hubby and I filled a container and let her splash around she was quite happy till we doctored her foot and put her back in the cage.



We were just a little wet when she was done, but she had a good time splashing around.

Wyatt doing the dreaded Algebra under my new plant hubby bought me a few weeks ago. I love this plant and am so happy with it. It seems to be very happy where it is and it adds a touch of nature to the livingroom.

Last week the kiddos had an appointment with the dentist, we've never been to this one and I was pleased with the decor. This picture is of the hallway and the next one is the ceiling of the room Ashley was in. Wyatt's room was done like a fish tank with fish etc. Ashley's when you looked at it you saw more detail catapillars, ladybugs, butterflys, bugs...it was very pretty.

Next comes the oral surgeon for wisdom teeth to be pulled, but that won't be till after my birthday weekend at the beginning of Nov. They are not looking forward to this, but one has to have his pulled only two thank goodness and the other it should be done so that there are no problems later in life. I did not get mine out till I was 33 and they told me it was getting to the point where the bone wouldn't fill in. Though I had no problems at all, uncomfortable yes, and Hurricane Katrina hit while I was in the midst of that uncomfortable, but I made it just fine.

I hope all goes well for you and yours this week. Our week is slow just school, but next week kicks in a very busy week at least when we are busy it is all at once and then it slows down for a little while. Next Monday we find out how they did at the State Fair with their projects, 4H starts for the year, Sis Allred from the General Relief Society is coming to our stake to do a fireside for the women kicking off our women's conference, the kids have a fireside the same night, Wyatt gets a cavity filled, Wyatt's 15th birthday!, pumpkin carving to enter in a 4H contest etc etc. What a week so we should rest up and plan this week.

May your week be blessed

Love,

Erika

Cooking with the Sun

I was asked to test drive this neat little thing and blog about it. Well when FedEx dropped it off I was excited to give it a spin, since I have wanted one of these or at least to try cooking with the sun. Our summers are so hot getting the cooking heat out of the house is a must. Even crockpots heat up the kitchen, but this isn't even in the house.

The next day, after opening it I went about following the directions of getting it ready. It comes out of the box ready to go all assembled etc. All you need to do is clean it with the simple instructions. I put it outside in the sun, added the included pan with warm soapy water and let the sun do the rest.  In about 2 hours I wiped out the inside with hot soapy water and it was ready to go. Easy!

After an hour on a cloudy day it was holding steady at 230 degrees to 250 degrees. The condensation is from the pot of water with the lid off.

Yesterday we decided to cook a chicken. It was a cloudy day so we started early and let it slow cook all day. We checked on it throughout the day and rotated it as the sun moved, moved it a couple of times since it ended up being shaded by a tree. Finding a place in your yard that has direct sun all day is ideal, I now know where is best.

When cooking the lid is placed on the pot that is included with the Sun Oven

Our chicken, I forgot to take a picture till after I started to cut into it. 

Verdict: Well I liked it, I did think it could have cooked longer, but it was moist, cooking in its own juices. And I did have to move the oven around and play with it, as well as it being a cloudy day, for a first time use I am happy with it.

Now I have a month or so to test it out so I will post more as I try it on things. I want to try bread and muffins. But today is going to be cloudy and possibly rainy so not today.

I hope your day is a blessed day..

Love,

Erika

Little Friends

We moved here about five and half years ago, not long after moving here we built a big barn. Well it seems that since almost to the day of its completion it has been a wonderful place to see our wildlife neighbors.

I have, twice now, almost stuck my hand in a feed container and grabbed hold of a oppossum. Right at the last minute I see what I am about to grab. Both times the barn was dark and I was feeding in the early morning. The last time was this last spring and a big, fat, very pregnant one was in the cat food. We laid the container on it side outside of the barn and she slowly waddled away.

It has become a weekly thing to see a raccoon in the barn, but lately it is almost daily. And now she has taken to stopping and looking at the person who finds her before running off into the forest.

A couple months ago she was in the hay loft all four of us had fun peeking up through the stairway at her before she climbed down a beam and ran out the front door.

We have been thinking of catching her and releasing her somewhere else since she has been getting bolder and bolder.

Last week Ash and I were walking and we found 3 young coons in a big oak tree on one of our trails. They were trying to hard to hide from us....

This one was trying to hard to hide, he had his face stuck in the tree and all that moved were his little ears listening to use walk around the tree. I think he thought he was doing a wonderful job of imitating this tree and that we did see him.

If you look closely you can see this ones mask and stripped tail. He was hanging on the side of the tree trying really hard to hide, but was not succeeding very well.

There was another up higher than these two that I could not get a good picture of, but all you could see was his face and his eyes peeping over and watching us.

We did see momma right after this coming from the barn. So I guess relocating her will have to be canceled, which is OK we just have to make sure containers are closed better and maybe set up a little area for her and her brood by this tree for us to put little snacks sometimes.

I love the little gifts we are given in this world when so much hatred is happening all over.

Have a blessed day...

Love,

Erika

Plain and Simple

at the cottage....

Last week we learned some very simple techniques to decorate cakes. A good friend of mine taught us some simple ways to spruce up a cake and to ice it beautifully. We placed plastic tableclothes on the long tables and let the women practice away on the tables. Heres Ash trying her hand at it.

On the way to the farm Saturday I spotted  animal life in abundance and had to share with you what I saw...a black snake crossing the road was to fast for me to catch on camera.

Yesterday, the kiddos made new pajama pants for youth conference this weekend. Yguy had my sewing machine at the table and Ash had hers at the sewing table. Such fun... The table was full of fresh picked tomaties and yummy fruit. The box has Trail of Tear beans drying they were a little damp from the rain the night before. They are  black beans and I am looking forward to saving them and building my supply of seeds for someday to grow our own black beans to eat.

tomatoes from the garden and sweet chocolate peppers.

Roasting them for Roasted Salsa. I also roasted two onions and garlic for this yummy goodness.

For this all you would do is roast your tomatoes for your favorite salsa recipe. Very easy they can be done on an open fire which would give them such a good flavor, but it's to hot for a fire. Or in the oven or on the grill.

Sorry for the blur, little dryed ornamental Chinese peppers these little babies have a bite to them, but are so cute in this spice bottle. Even though it says ornamental you can eat them and they dry very fast.

The jelly and jam behind them the kids made Tuesday,  Watermelon jelly and Sugar free blueberry jam.

Watermelon Jelly

4 cups pureed watermelon. (take the seeds out before pureeing)

3 1/2 cups sugar

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 package of no sugar pectin ( I use this anyway but this recipe stated this kind, you can add sugar when using this pectin though you don't need to. But for this recipe you do.)

Follow package directions.

The cake our instructor decorated for us while teaching us how to make these lovely flowers.

We have been getting quite a bit of rain in the evenings and it as been so hot we have had heat index advisories the last few days.  Hubby has been very busy at work funerals seems to pile up when there is a heat wave or cold snap.

Garden is doing great the butternut squash are loving all this rain and are spreading their vines out. The strawberries are multipling like crazy which I love babies everywhere, I hope to pick our first berries next year.

Nothing to exciting going on around here except the normal summer activities though they keep us very busy. I hope to sew today maybe a skirt, maybe a blouse or two, or some zipper pouches for my purse to organize it some.

Hope you all have a wonderfully delicious day...

Love,

Erika

Loveliness

Saturday hubby had to work, so we took off and visited my mom. Mary(my dog) went with us and she had so much fun being with her people. She loved grandma's house since she had a friend to play with and grandma gave her her own chewy bone that she was able to bring home.  She took over my moms dogs bed and her toys, but Amber was ok with it she was a lovely host and they stayed at the house while we went to a couple of yard sales. 

I found some great deals and Ash found something for her hope chest. Below is one of those finds... 

It wasn't in my colors, so yesterday I painted it and stenciled some nature on it....

This little lovely was flitting around the flowers yesterday. I love butterflys any and all.

I hope your day is as lovely as this butterfly...

Love,

Erika