On May 13th, Nathan and I took the kids to Caddo Lake State Park. It was an easy day trip from our house at just over an hour and the park was hosting an “Incredible Edible Hike.” I saw the event advertised on Facebook as an under 1 mile hike guided by a ranger who would show us at least 10 different plants you could forage from the wild! Ashlyn, especially, had taken interest in eating dandelions from our yard lately, so we figured what better way to mark a park off our list while adding some extra interest to the trip!

We took some time before and after the hike to take in some of the sights of Texas’ only natural lake and the “world’s largest cypress grove.”

There were canoes available for rent and they stayed in constant use. The section of lake that the park is located on is more like a channel, but there were dozens of advertisements in the area for boat tours.

The hike really was fun, informative and considering there were over 70 people(!) involved, very organized! Ashlyn was really excited about the hike and came prepared with a notebook to take notes so that she could create her own field guide book. She jotted down the name of the plant and what the ranger said about it while I took pictures with my phone. We sampled appropriate plants along the way and got to see some CCC work.

The only real stressful part of the event was the fact the 3 ft max wide trail was COMPLETELY surrounded by poison ivy! Agh! Nathan was constantly playing guard herding me AND the kids away from the edges. We also learned once we got home that we all got ate up in chiggers. Rookie move not spraying some Off.

Ashlyn’s book turned out pretty cool! She took great notes and was then able to write complete paragraphs on each plant. I made sure to scan the pages onto the computer so we can print future copies 😉

My all in all take away from this park is while it is very worthy of a visit for it’s distinct features, I really have no desire to camp here. Between poison ivy, chiggers and I’m sure the onslaught of nightly mosquitoes from the swampy environment, I don’t think we would get much exploring done. Y’all know I’m down to “rough-it”, but I’m not a glutton for punishment. 😆

-Lindsay

I had a request to fill y’all in on the farm critters next. AKA the petting zoo we are accumulating haha. It’s crazy to think the last time I updated y’all on the animals, the 4 big hens were living in the dollhouse coop, the new chicks from Atwood’s were in a brooder in the mudroom and none of these other critters existed yet! Have I got some cuteness for y’all!

I finished the chicken coop and run wiring mid March and the 8 chicks we had in the brooder moved into the coop. It was still getting chilly at night so the heat lamp went with them and I blocked their access to the run. The big girls stayed in the dollhouse coop that we moved them to the house in. I wanted the chicks to get at least half the size the big girls were before they started living together and pecking order rituals began. About 2 weeks later, I let everyone start free ranging at the same time. The big girls definitely chased the little ones from time to time but at least they had somewhere to run away to.

During this time, the woman that hatched the Easter Egger chicks said they were almost ready to be sexed and come home, so we set up a day after the Easter holiday.

Sometimes animals just have the darndest way of multiplying, ya know? Like you go to the pet store to buy a goldfish and figure what harm 3 would do. Or you go to adopt a cat and can’t leave it’s best buddy behind at the shelter. Or you meet a lady to buy four chickens and come home with 2 bunnies in addition. Ya Know? It happens! The lady was nice, her chickens were pretty, the bunnies were sweet and PRECIOUS and my 3 doe-eyed children could see right through me. Did I mention they were free?? Bonus bunnies! So we head home with 4 chickens in a tub in the back of the Expedition and 2 bunnies in a cardboard box on the seat between the boys. I had an hour drive back home to figure out how to bear the brunt of Nathan’s annoyance and where to put the cute little stinkers.

And I totally pulled it all off! 😁 The 4 Easter Eggers moved right in with the 8 from Atwood’s with very little drama. I gave the little guys plenty of hideaway corners using hog wire that they could fit through but the others could not and everyone adjusted.

Then I got to work on a rabbit hutch IN the chicken run. I had read plenty about rabbits living with chickens and how many people didn’t bother with a hutch. But I couldn’t stand the thought of a bunnie being crapped on trying to sleep in the coop, so they got their own house. It was done in 2 days and Thumper and Carrots moved in. 

Freeranging between the big girls and the 12 little ones was getting better and better, so I went ahead and moved them into the new coop and run after the bunnies had been in there for about a week. There had been ALOT of animal shuffling going on and it was time to bring it all together. I put plastic Easter eggs in each of the nesting boxes and the big girls caught on! It was crazy for a few days with the big girls’ confusion and being crappy to the little ones, we even had some laying issues, but it smoothed out quickly. The interesting thing is the Easter Eggers and the big girls roost out in the run while the other 8 roost in the coop where they technically should. I’m not going to stress too much about it until it starts getting cold again.

The bunnies began “freeranging” when the chickens did which was risky, but they stayed around the barn and came up to us when we called to them to be picked up. Until one started not doing that. Thumper (the solid white one, go figure) stopped coming to us and began acting more feral. As of a week ago, she has unfortunately completely disappeared. Carrots remains and seems to be fine with the solitude and continued arrangement. I even go out some evenings to find she has put herself up with the chickens for the night!

Finally, to round out our springtime animal additions, we have Jethro and Red (II). The barn kitties. I had been wanting to get a couple of boys to raise outside with Star (our original outdoor cat whose age has been showing) to give her some back up. One of Nathan’s coworker’s cats had kittens and we decided the timing was right to claim the boys from the litter. The last month with them has been so much fun! They are a perfect addition. Star likes them, they are super affectionate and are already digging up mole tunnels. 👍🏻 But really, most of time, they’re just being toted around by one of the kids haha!

I feel this will be it for animals this year. The other TWELVE chickens aren’t even laying yet, the missing bunny is sad and the new kittens are keeping us on our toes and entertained. Goats are still on the list. And I added guineas for about a day before marking them off after some more research. Who knows anymore?! Just no pigs. Not ever. Hold me to that.

-Lindsay

 

 

 

 

Whoa! March 11 was my last post!? So it’s kinda been awhile….and I REALLY have no idea where to start. The problem has been; when spring showed up, it really showed up! We got all caught up in it and the more we did, the more I knew I had to post about and the more I got writers block on organizing it all! I mean, the “chicks” have moved into the new coop after adding 4 more (making a total of 16), we’ve planted more in the garden and have begun harvesting a few veggies, we had new windows installed upstairs in the house, Weston played tball, went to a new state park, Ashlyn had her 5th recital, started a pet treat business AND got bunnies and barn kitties. About the only thing that hasn’t been off-the-charts crazy is our homeschooling. Pretty much all book work has ceased to exist once the weather got perfect and we have been outside sun up to sun down. Now that the heat has arrived, we’re picking the classroom back up.

So, really….how do I start this? Let’s just do a garden update on this post. It’s raining right now and that makes me think about the garden, haha. I’ll spread the other updates over more posts over the next couple days. *fingers crossed*

And just so y’all know, I’m totally delaying grocery shopping, blueberry picking and house cleaning to write this post. It never stops! And I love it.

GARDEN UPDATE

This spring garden has totally been my learning curve. And I’m sure the fall garden will be too. I keep saying, NEXT YEAR’S garden will be off the chain and I’m still pretty confident on that statement. Since my last post on the garden, we did manage to add some new plants and I think I’m going to break it down by what I’ve learned so far about each one in this particular soil and season.

Brussel Sprouts: Plants matured to a decent size, but not as big as they could be. The leaves have been big and healthy and the bunnies sure do love them. Tiny nubs that will become sprouts have formed above most leaves and I just hope the heat doesn’t mess things up. I did discover caterpillars on the plants yesterday that I have to battle after this rain. I don’t know if I will get much off these plants for the spring. I’m going to try it again in the fall and see if it fairs better. They may need to just a be a fall crop.

Broccoli: I planted these from seed for the spring due to not finding starter plants. Apparently, that’s a no no. It tends to get too hot for broccoli too soon for it to fully mature, but we did manage one delicious bunch off one plant out of ten last week! It was more like a “broccolini” and we loved it raw. I’m definitely doing these seeds again in the fall.

Strawberries: only one of the eight bare root plants made it to becoming a plant and the 5 mature plants we put in the ground are giving us a couple of berries a day. Enough to be fun. I don’t know if I’m going to keep messing with strawberries. We did find a great pick your own farm about 20 minutes away that had huge, organic berries and we were able to can a years worth of strawberry jam from one trip! Another post on that soon.

Asparagus: These plants are doing what they should. We won’t see anything edible this year from them, but if we treat them well, they should give us asparagus for at least the next 10 years starting. Crazy! We did lose one section of stalks to probably a wild rabbit, but that was before our new barn kitties. 😉

Zucchini: they’re finally making some veggies. With as many plants as I have, I should be getting more but I think that’s coming. I’m thinking they were waiting on the heat. I actually had to replant seeds 3 times to get the 10 plants I have now and I think it’s because I started too early. I filled in the rest of the row with eggplants and 4 new tomatoe plants (surprise varieties) that a friend gave me. 

Jalapeño: These have been the easiest, no frills, gives us something every day pretty much from the beginning plants out of the whole garden! I give them a little Epsom salts once in a while and they keep on trucking! Jalapeño will be doubled next spring so I can have more than we’re eating for preserving purposes.

Red bell pepper: the plants have been healthy and making good size peppers, but I’m fighting bugs pretty bad. Once the pepper starts to turn red on the plant, bugs attack it! I’ve started picking them green and we’re enjoying them just the same at least. I guess they’re just not as sweet as they could be if we let them turn red. I’m going to keep trying these plants in the future.

Roma tomatoe: I started out with just one of these plants and A GOPHER ATE IT. It was the craziest thing! I went out one morning and the plant seemed shorter. A little tug brought the remaining stalk out of this deep hole and the entire bottom half of the plant was missing! It was like something out of “Tremors”. I was pissed. We came across a battery powered sonar stake at the hardware store and decided to try it. Because if that jerk ate that plant in one night, what the hell else was he about to attack?! I’m happy to report so far, so good! So good in fact, I added 6 new Roma plants and even with them going in late, they’ve produced decently and look good for the remainder of the season. im going to replant in late summer for a hopeful fall crop that maybe I can make salsa out of!

Corn: Ugh. The freaking corn. I’m over corn. I’ll just buy it at the store. First was the planting it in one row debacle. Then they kept falling over! Like constantly! Then the aphids showed up and I was constantly spraying soap water on them. I started calling them divas because they were so high maintenance. I threatened to pull them up. Then the husks appeared. Yay! We might get something! Magic pollination! Plucked the first one and opened it up. Full. Of. Effing. Worms. So gross. Everything got pulled up. The end.

Potatoes: these were an after thought and have already come and gone. My friend gave me some extra starter spuds and I threw them in a hardware cloth bottom raised box because, why not. Ashlyn and I worked pretty hard covering the plants with dirt as they grew bigger and bigger. We finally ran out room in the box to fill dirt and waited till the plants showed signs the taters below were ready. We decided on a day based on our patience and schedule and dug the whole thing up. The plants PROBABLY could have gone another 2 weeks and we would have had more, but the over 10 lbs we collected from planting on a whim seemed worth it to me! I’m anxious to set sweet potatoes for the fall.

Watermelon and cantaloupe: these two plants are my pride and joy! They are doing EXACTLY what they should and give me no problems. I love them, also, because they taught me the importance of mulching your veggie garden! I started putting 2 and 2 together when the vines were getting overtaken with weeds that some sort of blocker was needed. So I decided to pull the straw/hay straight out of the chicken coop and spread it down every row. It has fertilizer built in with the chicken and bunnie poop (Yes, the chickens and bunnie live together. It’s awesome and adorable. Post coming soon) and as the straw breaks down it’ll feed the soil long term. Winning!! I began the process with the melons and to date have almost half the garden covered. I gotta tell y’all the difference between what’s been mulched and what hasn’t yet is night and day! That alone makes me believe that this time next year will be a different story for this garden!

3 weeks ago we planted pumpkin and spaghetti squash vines and they are growing like crazy mulched as well. We should see produce in the early fall from those plants.

At this point I feel that as long as I keep the mulching process going and thus feeding my dirt, things will keep getting better. I was definitely hoping for higher yield by this point, but ask me again next year 👍🏻

Well, that’s the garden update. What do y’all want to hear about next? 😊

-Lindsay

 

 

This past week we were able to pull off our first themed unit study that Ashlyn and Weston were able to participate in together! I asked them the week before what they wanted to cover and Weston said planets and Ashlyn said birds. We settled on planets first and we had so much fun! I even caught Weston saying mid week that he, “loves this kind of school.” 😍

Monday, we started with an overview of the EIGHT planets. It’s still weird teaching that coming from the generation that was taught about the 9th planet, Pluto. We found balance on that topic by discussing why scientists changed their minds. We read books about the planets, watched an episode of “The Magic School Bus” where they visit all 9 planets. (Obviously that episode was a little dated.) Ashlyn worked on her ELS by identifying verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns from a paragraph about Jupiter while Weston did a color by number planets. Then both kids wrote a page about their favorite planet and created flip books with the picture that they colored themselves and names of the planets in order. Ashlyn picked Mars as her favorite and Weston picked Saturn.

Tuesday, we focused on the Earth and constellations. After a brief chat on the Earth’s rotation and orbit around the sun and some asteroid themed math, we crowded in the dark bathroom with a projector and recreated some famous constellations. Then the kids created their own! Weston made a goose and Ashlyn made a Pegasus.

Wednesday, we took advantage of a warm, sunny day and made a solar oven to capture the Sun’s light and heat to melt s’mores. The kids were patient enough for an hr and while the chocolate coating on the cookie was very melted, the marshmallow was minimally squished. We still called it a success.

Thursday, we wrapped the week up with discussing the moon and its viewable phases as it orbits the Earth. The kids were thrilled that we used Oreos to do this! This cute idea I found on Pinterest, had the kids scraping the icing off halved cookies to represent the appearance of the moon’s reflection of sunlight on Earth. Then, of course, they ate their moons.

I plan on doing these units week after week and year after year. When we repeat a unit theme, there’s going to be plenty of material to expand on each time. Right now, Archer floats in and out while we work, but next year, he could get more involved too.  It was super exciting to get to a point in our crazy move and holidays being over to pull a week like this off and all of us love it so much! Here’s to getting a good thing going!

-Lindsay

Spring is in the air and we are getting things done! For starters, we’ve got a new batch of baby chicks growing in a brooder in the mudroom! We picked up 8 pullets (females) at Atwoods in Tyler. Out of that bunch, we *should* have 2 leghorns, 2 gold sex links, and 4 black sex links. I’m awaiting 4 ameracaunas to hatch from a local gal. They lay blue/green colored eggs and the artist in me just couldn’t resist multicolored eggs on my counter. The 8 I currently have are about 2-4 weeks old already; so brooding everyone to together may be a challenge when I add the new 4, but I’m going to have to wait and see. When everyone has lost their fuzz and feathered out, they’ll move out to the new coop! In the meantime, having little peepers down the hall has been entertaining. Even Fluffy has seen appeal to coexisting! However, we often have to remove him from the top because he tends to block all of the light!

We have decided to ignore the dumb groundhog and move forward like Spring is here to stay. As a result, we have planted 2 varieties of asparagus, 2 varieties of strawberries, brussel sprouts, jalapeños, red bell pepper, tomato, zucchini by seed and edamame. The edamame was an impulse decision. We bought one plant and I have no idea how it will do. We also planted corn and broccoli by seed. 2 more crops that I’m not certain about the outcome. Broccoli should really be sown as plants in the spring and seeds in the fall, but I was having a hard time finding healthy plants. And apparently corn needs to be in multiple side by side rows for pollination annnndddd we did just one long row. I’m going to have to talk extra nice to the bees on those plants I guess. The kids sure did love planting it though! We have cantaloupe, watermelon and pole bean seeds left to sown along with some pollinator attractant flowers and we have our spring garden set!

We also have blooms on one of our orchard trees now! Which makes one of nine identified as crabapple! This really gets my hopes up that maybe the tree I thought was pear may actually be an already established apple tree. Crabapples, in addition to being ornate and edible, are widely used as a pollinator to other varieties of larger apple. But we will just have to wait and see as more blooms show. Isn’t the crabapple pretty?

And last but not least! Saving the best update for last…..we now have a functioning bathtub and shower in the mudroom!!! Nathan really pulled out the big guns this past weekend and tied all the loose ends together into a masterpiece of a finished product! The kids were so excited and enjoyed their first bath in the new house tonight. We have a fun, rustic idea to finish it out cosmetically, but I am so happy to have this plumbing project behind us now.

I can’t wait for this month’s guests to come share the fun with us!

-Lindsay

 

While awaiting our tax return to wrap up our bathtub/shower installation in the mudroom and to start other projects on the house list, we’ve been blessed with a rather mild winter this month. So we were able to redirect our efforts into some sweat equity outside! A lot of demo was done in a room in the barn and attached shed that would become the chickens’ new coop and run. For  2 weeks, I would basically rip rotten or unnecessary wood out during the week and Nathan would burn my massive pile on the weekend. I finally got it all cleared out and the remodeling began.

The rectanglar shed attached to the back corner of the barn where the small coop room is located was covered in corrugated tin. Nathan cut it down to quarter walls of tin on the north and south side walls and we popped the larger pieces off. The bottom portion will serve as extra protection since it is buried.

A lot of shelving was removed from the shed, but some framework has been left behind to give the chickens some activity on non free ranging days. 😉

Next, a continuous wrap of chicken wire will cover the exposed studs and we will need to create some kind of door. That’s still on the drawing board.

It worked out wonderfully that the room closest to the shed is ideal for a coop! Much of the items needed for roosts and nesting boxes were already in place with ample room to add more in the future! I even have a tentative plan for building in a brooder instead of a tub brooder in the house.

All that is left in here is finishing the chicken wire “wallpapering” for extra protection on the non solid walls. 👍🏻 I’m anxious to get some more birds! And with the way things are going, I may be placing my order next week for 15 variety female chicks to go in a brooder in the mudroom. 😍

While things have been coming together with the chicken accommodations, I was able to get a composting area constructed! We needed something that we could keep Skye out of or she would be dumpster diving on the daily. Conveniently, there was a crude structure at the end of the chicken run that I was able to take down to posts and attach some of the corrugated panels from the shed around! Repurposing for the win!

The pallet operates as a door at the moment, but it enables me to get in there for turning purposes and wheelbarrowing ability.

Now that we were composting…wouldn’t it make sense to have a garden as well?! I mean it’s not like we have a lot to do without tending to a garden daily already. 😜 But when you commit to farmlife, you FULLY commit! Haha So off to a rental service I go last Friday and come home with a “tiller”.  I use quotations because it was basically a weed eater motor with some blades attached. BUT I was able to pick it up by myself and it fit in the back of my Expedition. Friday was definitely my learning curve day. Lesson #1: I initially wanted waaayy too big of a garden! Once I got half way through what we actually ended up with, the tilling and raking was whooping me! I thought to myself, “how am I going to maintain this DAILY?!” So we settled on about 2/3 of what we initially planned for this first year out the chute. Lesson #2: rake the got dang mother effing leaves out first! I thought, “oh these will just till right in and be compost!” Ergh, wrong! They only bogged down the tiller, blocking it from even hitting the dirt. 🙄 The remainder of Friday was then spent raking dang leaves out of the garden area. Exhausting.

Saturday I woke up sore already, but Nathan was ready and willing to assist, so back at it we went. Aside from the tiller not being ideal for the job, the work went smoothly and we finished our 45’x15′ garden with 7 neat rows. After the construction, we then figured out what we were putting in it. I think we covered all the bases!

Now comes lesson #3. Chickens HATE nice things. Especially piles! We spent the rest of Saturday chasing the jerks out of the garden. This obviously wasn’t going to work out once we planted, so we built a “wall.” We call it our own Trump wall. 😆  So far the chickens haven’t figured out that they just have to flap and hop right over. Let’s hope they stay stupid. Haha I would like to be able to let them in the area once plants are big for pest control. We shall see.

Right now it feels like the project list grows faster than we remove things; but when you get down to it, it’s all in the name enjoyment really. So we’ll get to it all when we get to it and I’ll be sure to keep y’all in the loop. 😉

-Lindsay

So I may have taken the “I have a dream” part of MLK day a little too far when I decided to rip out 2/3 of my lower cabinets and counter tops this past Monday. After watching Dr King’s infamous speech on YouTube and doing a project with the kids for school that morning; I realized that I, too, have a dream! That I don’t wake up to 2 or 3 mouse droppings on my kitchen floor! That I don’t feel the north wind on my feet as I cook dinner! That I don’t have to wonder just what kind of nasty lies below where I store the things we eat on! It’s not like we don’t have enough projects started, but I had hit the limit on this issue. Anything else we tried wasn’t resolving things, so time to get destructive. At the very least, the endeavor would get some aggression out on that kitchen! And just a week later, I have no regrets! Nathan came in and made a perfect temporary kitchen that I KNOW is clean and operates better than the previous set up. Here’s a photo progression of an impulse desicion gone wonderfully right.

Mom came over and assisted/supervised my controlled chaos as I removed the cabinet and countertop that was furthest away from the plumbing. Those pipes are sensitive in this house.

It took a small amount of prying and banging and a few “sumbitches”, but it came out piece by piece. The adjacent countertop was going to need to be jigsawed alongside the sink, because we were hoping to do this without pulling the sink as well. What we revealed under just this section was enough to convince me we were doing the right thing!

That would be a freaking nest where all the stuff is piled up on the left side. Apparently mice and (ugh) rats like to “decorate” with treasures from around the house. Some of that stuff belonged to us! Grrroooooossssssss. With lots of gagging, I got it swept up and that old linoleum lifted right off the floor. Nathan came home and got the cut done on the counter top and we were able to remove the second section of cabinet right at the edge of the sink.

I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture of the huge crack that we revealed between the floor and the exterior wall, but there was an obvious “highway” back there.  It was getting late, so Nathan quickly cut some 2×4 to place over it. He was able to slide another board behind the sink cabinet as well, so that doesn’t have to come out right away.

Look how clean and mouse poop free we are now! I just don’t have any countertop or storage and I only prepare 3 meals a day in this kitchen…. 😳 I was prepared to work off of card tables for quite a while, but Nathan was able to construct some incredibly sturdy workbenches and this girl just got her “butcher block” wood countertops she’s been wanting! 😆 A trip to Target fixed the storage dilemma and within 5 days I had a kitchen again!

We’ve been mouse poop free since! Call me crazy, but I LOVE this little set up! Nathan says it’s because it’s reminiscent of camp/cabin kitchen and I feel like I’m at a vacation spot. Haha! I’m super excited to experiment with the wood countertops before the real thing goes in. Honestly, this little sidetrack from all the other projects has kind of encouraged us to look into DIYing our kitchen renovation! After the mudroom, of course. Yea. Go ahead and call us crazy.

-Lindsay

Don’t expect 2 State Parks in a week to be the norm, but we just had to seize the opportunity to visit another nearby park on the first clear day after 5 straight days of rain.  From what I read on the place prior to going, a winter time visit was more ideal. And for two reasons; the constantly warm lake water due to the nearby power plant discharge and BALD EAGLES(cue the patriotic music)! We got all star-spangled eyed and loaded up for the hour long drive.

The park ranger at the entrance was super helpful and guided us on the map where we could find the best viewing place for the one pair of eagles they currently had living at the lake and also where their few hiking trails were located. It was close enough to lunch time that we headed to the eagle location first and set up our viewing picnic. We were warned that they are only most active in the early morning and evening, but we were hopeful. We were hopeful for a whole hour. We did spot their nest across the lake fairly easy. Excuse the poor quality of iPhone zooming, but the blob in the middle of the leafless tree is it. The foggy day wasn’t helping, but how cool would it have been to see one come swooping across that lake from the mist?!

After deciding we would just have to be satisfied with the viewing of their nest, we drove on to check out the beach and fishing pier. We were all curious about just how warm that water was. And holy moly! It felt darn HOT compared to the 50 degree air temperature! I put it at 70 degrees. When I asked the ranger later what the actual temp was he said it was in the upper 60s. But in the summer is can push into the 80s when the plant is at peak production! The kids were just pissed I didn’t bring swim suits for them. Ashlyn collected a sample to make a slide later for our new microscope. I’ll have an update on that soon.

We then drove to the other side of the lake where the campsites and 2 small hiking trails were located. There is a trail that follows the entire perimeter of the park, but mostly recommended for horseback or biking. First, we walked he birding trail and found a cool natural blind that let you sneak out on a peninsula into the lake.

The kids still managed to flush a flock of mallards up out of the water. Which, of course, they loved. After some time at the playground, we walked a 1/4 mile loop that was part of a 2 mile nature trail through post oak trees.

On our way out, we drove through the campsites and I determined this really isn’t a place I would be interested in camping at. The sights are super close together. It looked like a parking lot with trees. In just one section of sites, there were 63 and only 2 bath houses. Not my cup of tea. I wouldn’t mind coming again for the day and trying the fishing, though!

-Lindsay

Well you just have to love Winter in Texas, don’t you?! Last weekend was down in the teens and I only darted outside long enough to tend to the chickens. This weekend was in the 60’s and I was ready to go hiking! So we took advantage of the closest state park that we haven’t been to yet.  Which worked out to be just on the other side of Athens in Eustace, 30ish minutes away!

It was overcast and raining off and on, but we packed a picnic lunch and the kids’ new camelbaks hopeful for agreeable weather. And luck was on our side! We were able to hike a near 2 mile trail that took us by primitive campsites and the lake.

A drizzle started as we came back to the trail head and we easily found covered picnic tables and enjoyed our lunch.

This park is fantastic! Full hook up sites, primitive sites and water only tent sites are all available and all located on or nearby the large lake. The fishing on the bank looks legit considering the catfish we saw on a guy’s stringer, but the park also allows motor boats and has a nice boat ramp. Large mouth bass are catch and release, but the rest can be dinner.

After experiencing the ease of use and the wide variety of function this park offers, we decided it will make for perfect “shake down” trips. We can guinea pig the kids on some primitive camping before hitting the big trails and try out new gear (the camelbaks were winners).

And most importantly, snagging a quick staycation would be a cinch. We’re definitely taking the pop up on her maiden trip here.

I’m happy to be back on the State Park trail. We renewed our pass for the year while at Purtis Creek, so stay tuned for more new parks! 

-Lindsay

Howdy everyone! How was your Christmas and New Years? We enjoyed lots of time with family, good food, and got spoiled all in shorts and tshirts!  Which is crazy to think back on considering the constant state of cold I’ve been in all day. Our temps haven’t gotten over 27 today! 😳 And we don’t even have any snow to show for it.

But when the temps have kept us indoors, we’ve found ways to keep busy. And thanks to a big haul of oranges and lemons from PawPaw’s trees, it’s been easy! We’ve had such success with our experiments, I thought I might as well share. This falls under the homesteading category, after all.

Most years, it seems only one type of citrus produces at a time in abundance. This year, each tree went bananas! We got as many oranges as we did lemons and, frankly, it was overwhelming at first. Usually I get just enough oranges to make juice for a week or two. Or squeeze lemon juice into ice cube trays to use in my water or in cooking. With this haul, I wanted to get more creative. This is what I STILL have left of a FULL box after all the fun. We started with lemonade and I finally found a recipe that works perfectly. The kids aren’t exactly thrilled the “chunks” (tiny bits of pulp) in their drink, but mama don’t have a strainer small enough yet. They’ll survive.

The Recipe for Our Perfect Lemonade:

• 1.5 cups lemon juice
• 2 cups water
• 1 to 1.5 cups sugar (I usually scale back the sugar in almost every recipe I find, so 1 cup keeps it sweet but definitely more tart)

Method: bring water and sugar to a boil until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a heat safe pitcher with the lemon juice. Fill pitcher rest of the way with more water.

We made two batches and stored both in the fridge; one in a washed out orange juice container and the other remained in the pitcher. I still have left over lemons to make freezer cubes as well!

The oranges had me take to Pinterest to find a way to preserve them. I’ve never liked marmalade and that was the only thing that came to mind until I found you can make just plain ol jam with orange juice! No chunks for my weird texture thing to get grossed out by! 👍🏻 I’ve been finding mason jars everywhere in this house and in the barn, so with a purchase of lids and pectin I was ready! It took a lot of oranges to make 5 cups of juice, but that was kind of the point, right? The process was super easy. I’m storing mine in the fridge because I don’t own a processor…yet. But due to the heat and the jars themselves, they all self sealed while cooling on the counter. But to ease my nerves, they will remain in the fridge. This is the recipe we followed. On batch one, I scaled the sugar back by a cup. After tasting batch one, the second batch got scaled back by 2 cups. I like tang more than sugar 😉.

Both batches turned out so good! The consistency was great after cooling, which surprised me considering how liquid it was going in! I am definitely hooked on this canning gig. I can’t wait for these fruit trees on our property to produce! Hopefully I can go canning crazy on peaches, plums and pears!

I should add that while typing this post, a cute flurry of snow showed up and we hurriedly enjoyed as much as we could before the cold was too much. I can still see an occasional fleck float by while I sit here and thaw. 😄

-Lindsay