Tag: sustainability

Wise resources

May 1, 2023

Wow what a long time it has been, we have talked over and over about letting the blog die. We love it! We love going through our old stories. We love writing them, But we find our time tied up other places and we never seem to get around to it. Yet every-time we discuss not renewing we talk ourselves out of it. So here I am today with a mile high to-do list feeling like I have to write this blog, maybe someone needs it, maybe it’s just for me either way I feel compelled to throw the days productivity to the wind and write.

It’s May 1st 2023, it has been raining for 3 days, the forecast calls for 3 more….it’s spring that’s not out of character and actually I am enjoying the last few days of curling up by the fire, reading, resting, getting ready for the busy season of planting….that never seems to stop until the fall harvest is over and the beds are tucked in for another winter.

Wait, fire? what?

Yup, of all the many blessings I have to be thankful for today the woodstove tops my list.

First, it’s May 1st and we are still running it ( historically unheard of for us)

Second, we can still run it which means my not only handsome but also handy husband provided for me the resources I needed to keep it going.

Third, we used those resources wisely, wisely enough that our woodlot has many many many more years of wood to provide. Wisely enough that the wood allotted for this year has lasted from Oct 1st ( the official Splitrock day to light the woodstove), right through today May 1st and I don’t even feel bad it’s going, yet there is still more wood I could burn.

Mostly though it’s the thought of the use of resources that I am thankful for and that have me writing today.

Homesteading has this way, self- sufficiency has this way, both for the people in it and the people out of it. Both groups can get rubbed the wrong way by certain claims the other makes. Sometimes it’s romanticized very unrealistically, sometimes it’s all about prepping and government take overs, end times, climate change, who is and isn’t doing what for the better good of the environment, society, animals, the poor I could go on and on and start the next war.

Then also there is who is doing it how, the wrong way, the right way, the financial inputs available to who. Even within the homesteading community there is lots of judgements and expectation and social media is so so good at buttering it all up in weedless gardens or poop free pastures ( neither of which we own if you were wondering).

But, all that said…. it is a different way of life. For me it brings more pleasure, also more work.

Regardless of how they label themselves homesteading brings more awareness to resources and their uses.

Regardless of why people are driven to homestead be it, self- sufficiency, finances, climate change, bad governments, call to stewardship they all in their why and their niches seem to have an agreement on good use of some types of resources.

Today I got smacked in the face with how thankful I am of my woodstove the resources it supplies and all the gifts that flow through it and from it.

Let me break it down and hopefully when you place your eyes on your homestead or your local neighborhood homesteaders you can view them in a light of well used resources, wrapped in their survival, thankful for them and all they provide.

It’s a source of energy my woodstove, 1 that for several reasons can be “bad” for the environment and the air quality depending on who you ask. It also is one unlike it’s electric, oil and gas powered counterparts whose energy I can use for several tasks easily and without much skill.

I am thankful for it’s heat, although today isn’t overly cold it is damp and I am thankful for the dry comfy cozy atmosphere for my family.

I am thankful I can use that residual heat energy to cook my supper, without activating another energy source nor without more energy output from myself ( after the generally prep work is done it just sits there and simmers away)

I am thankful the warm dry air it puts off can dry my clothes in a family of 6 still living at home and our solar panels not enough to run a dryer, I rely on dry woodstove heat or dry days on the line for unending laundry tasks.

In the big picture , there are a ton of other things to be thankful for:

The woodlot that supplies the energy source

The skills of my husband and his many years cutting in the bush that keeps our forest sustainable for many many years to come.

The ” free work out” wood splitting and stacking and restacking inside provides.

The family time, because lets face it….everyone has to pitch in, to gather, split, stack.

The skills my children learn, how to start a fire, (and there is a difference between a fire for warmth and one that has flame), how to keep it going, and how it works, drafts ect…

There is more, so much more….. but my writing time needs to end. Feel free to add the resources your thankful for, or others you would add to my list in the comments.

In the morning quiet

March 13, 2018

The silence is broken as the alarm sounds of in the darkness that is our bedroom.

It is 5:45 one of my days off as I have this week booked off from work. I have slept in till this point as normally I am already at work.

I let Amanda stay in bed this morning as she normally gets up to milk the rest of the week (even on days that I am home she typically gets up to milk and let’s me sleep in a little longer or just so we can hang out while we milk).

Our youngest got up to help me with milking (he enjoys the homestead life).

Once again the silence of the night is broken as the snow crunches beneath our feet as we walk towards the barn with milking bucket in hand.

As I enter the barn I am met with quiet darkness which is broken with a bleat from Millie and some answering bleats from her kids (who are in a separate pen over night).

I lead Millie over to the milking stand. She steps right up as she has become accustomed to our new morning routine. The sound of her hooves upon the wood disturbs the silence even further.

Our youngest is sure someone is at the barn door but it is just Blaze in the next stall over scratching his head on the partition wall.

Spray down Millie’s teats and udder to make sure she is clean the sound of the spray is loud in the stillness.

Pat her dry and place the milk bucket under her and gently milk her into a strip cup to check that everything looks good and she is healthy. The youngest takes a turn stripping out some milk from Millie into the bucket. We switch who is milking as his attention wains. The sound of the fresh milk against the side of the stainless steel bucket has a satisfactory ring to it and is almost relaxing as I get into a rhythm.

Millie relaxes as the swelling in her udder receds. She starts to munch away on her grain chewing loud enough that you know what she is doing even though her head is out of the circle of light produced from the flashlight.

Milk collected the youngest and I reunite Millie with her kids. Headed back to the house the snow crunches under our feet once again.

The house is quiet as everyone else is still sound asleep. The clock ticks on the wall. We get out the filters and the funnel. Put a filter into the funnel/strainer and pour the fresh milk through it sounds almost like coffee dripping in a brew cycle.

Put the milk into the fridge and wash everything up.

The youngest decides to go back to bed. I sit down to drink a cup of coffee.

Finally some quiet in the morning.

Milk…it is a journey

March 4, 2018

Well this morning we milked Millie for the first time. We have stripped her out here and there just to make sure she was used to the idea and to make sure that the kids were able to get the milk that they needed.

To get to this point has been a journey.

Last year we got a miniature horse (who isn’t a mini now but not a pony…probably a class all of his own… if you remind me I will write a post about that another time lol). Now you can’t have a horse (mini or pony or whatever he may be) and not let him have a friend. So we got a few bottle baby goats. We had them wethered (castrated) and brought them home. We had them castrated so we wouldn’t be dealing with a Billy/buck who can be real jerks. After a few months it was evident that one of the two had been missed for castration.

What do you do with an intact Buck? You find him a girlfriend. Along came Millie. We had chickens at this point and I know we had some bees bumbling around…so after some conversations I am sure that the goats must of had with the birds and the bees…we ended up with kids…

Now that we have kids we have a supply of milk.

We have built a milk stanchion. (I found plans for this at fiascofarm.com).

This stanchion is a well thought out plan all the designers ask is for a donation for using the plan (which I still need to send to them).

We have left the kids with Millie up to this point. Now that we are going to be milking her we will be separating them overnight. This allows her to bag up so we have a supply of milk in the morning to tap into. Once we are done we put her back with the kids for the day and we will separate them again in the evening.

This morning we went out and put Millie on the milk stanchion and washed her uder and teats with a wash solution. A solution that Amanda made from a recipe she found from 104homestead.com.

We put the milk bucket under her and started milking…if only it was that easy. She was a little nervous being a new thing for her but with a few close calls of hooves and buckets we managed not to loose any milk.

We came in from the barn complete with a milk pail of fresh milk and smiles upon our faces.

We filtered the milk through a stainless milk strainer with filter that we purchased on line at shenandoahhomesteadsupply.com.

And now we have milk cooling in the fridge.

This is just a quick overview of how things went. There is more to the process of milking and at some point I may write a detailed post about how to milk. There is lots of good information around sometimes it is just weeding it out.

We have used fiasco for information as well as https://www.weedemandreap.com

Once again there is always information to be had you need to sift through the information and make the best choice for yourself and for your family and animals. I don’t know everything even with Google.

Have a great day everyone and happy milking!

Blazing saddles!

March 15, 2017

So over night we find ourselves full into homesteading! We have goat kids (both bottle kids) living in the front hall. We felt the loss of piglets (to coyotes) a few days before we were to pick them up.

We are a homestead, to me that means that most things we bring onto the homestead needs to have a purpose, needs to add to our life, needs to have a job. 

We have chicks coming end of the month…they will contribute through eggs and meat, as well as keeping insects down around the outside of the garden and will help out as they range eating pests that others will not.

Goats can provide meat, dairy, and cashmere. They also will browse through the brush rather than graze (so this may be a good introduction into what may become a staple animal here on the homestead).The two we have are both castrated so one will become meat or go to the sale barn to offset cost of the other. The other has a job to do which will be a long term job of keeping our newest addition company.

That’s right we have added a new member to our homestead! We picked up over the weekend a large miniature horse. I laugh myself at the sound of that. I never intended on owning a mini. However we have one. He is a good boy. He is about 5 years of age and has been loved greatly by the place he called home until this past weekend.

His name is Blaze.

Now I never intended to own a mini because what do you do with a mini? They are small you might even say they are mini…however cute they are I don’t intend to feed a hat burner for nothing. So this mini horse has a job once he is broke to drive (he is broke to ground drive he just hasn’t been hitched yet). 

His job will be two fold. 

First he will teach our kids how to drive, as well as horsemanship. This is a good job for a mini. They read body language just like a larger horse. They respond the same. They are less intimidating for smaller children to get their experience with leading and picking feet up and the basics of horse care.

His second job will be to haul out firewood from the bush. Firewood that will heat our home in the winters…firewood that will be used to boil sap in the sugar bush…and firewood for sale and for camp fires around home when we visit with company. 

I look forward to seeing what he can do and to the enjoyment he will bring to our family.