Wonderful TV Show for Homesteaders

One of my life long friends has been teasing me about being Barbara Good/Felicity Kendal from an old BritCom called “Good Neighbors” or “The Good Life”. I had never seen it but I looked it up on Wikipedia and could vaguely see what she meant. Well, for my birthday she surprised me with the series on DVD! I’m honestly in love with it.

Tom & Barbara Good working in their homestead in the midst of a middle class neighborhood

The premise is a 40-year-old office worker has a midlife crisis and decides he and his wife are going to turn their yard into a homestead. Even though the series is from the mid-1970s it really showcases homesteading perfectly in my opinion.

Tom and Barbara live in a middle class neighborhood, yes neighborhood. Their yard becomes home to chickens, pigs, and goats to the delight of the audience. The writers take us through the Goods going offgrid with their effluence digester, taking their goats to graze in the town square, looking at common items differently, and bartering modern luxuries for necessities. All while their neighbors and best friends continue living like a typical middle class household.

The Goods and their neighbors the Leadbetters have the stereotypical interaction between homesteaders and ‘normal’ people

It truly is a delightful TV series that shows the triumphs and heartbreaks when you choose to live a simpler life.

Recipe: Pumpkin Dog Treats

Tis the season where every new product is pumpkin flavored. Why? Because aside from carving jack o lanterns and tin cans of puree for pie the average person has no idea what to do with pumpkins sadly.

When my son was little, he wanted to grow his own pumpkins for carving so we did. It broke my heart seeing all the waste though so I thought of more ways to use the produce. I’m by no means one of the gazillion pumpkin aholics out there, but it is a tasty treat in the fall.

Another benefit of pumpkins is that if kept in a cool place, fresh pumpkins will keep for ages without other assistance. There’s a reason pumpkins were a popular food prior to refrigerators.

Now my dogs absolutely love their pumpkin treats. Not only is it cheaper than the store bought varieties but it’s healthier too! My old man dog started having problems pooping and the added pumpkin fiber makes it easier on him.

I’m not quite sure on the amounts since I just eye ball it but I’ve roughly estimated. I make my treats softer and more gooey rather than crunchy and about 1/2 inch square. The size and consistency works best for my chihuahuas since they’re older.

Don’t they look delicious?

Ingredients: 4C flour, 1C pumpkin pureed, 2 eggs, 1/2Tspn salt, & water

1. In a bowl, mix pumpkin, eggs, and salt until smooth
2. Slowly add in flour and mix thoroughly
3. Add water as needed until all the flour has been added and the dough is cook consistency
4. Allow the dough to sit for 15 minutes and preheat the oven to 350F
5. On ungreased cookie sheet, lay out 1/2 inch balls so they aren’t touching. The dough doesn’t swell at all so you can really load the sheet up
6. Bake 10 minutes on one side. Flip the treats over and turn the pan. Bake for another 5 minutes for gooey consistency or 10 minutes for crunchy.

I usually get roughly 140 treats out of the recipe. I store them in a ziplock bag in the freezer to keep them fresh.

Help Conservation & our future

My family and I are fairly active in our community. We’re not the crusading do-gooders by any stretch, but we do like to help in little ways. We found out about a great program that helps generate federal funds for our state’s Fish and Game conservation by reaching out and helping teach people about fishing. The neatest part is that it’s 100% free for us to get certified!

While it’s managed by my state’s Department of Fish & Game, they actually turned the administering of classes over to a great group called Fishing’s Future. Fishing’s Future is an amazing non-profit organization that’s devoted to getting families out on the water fishing and bonding together.

But anyway, more about what we’re doing to get our state’s Fish & Game more funding…

We’re becoming state certified fishing instructors! This will allow us to hold fishing classes that are certified by our state to teach young and old how to fish. Sure, we could do it without the certification, but that wouldn’t get added federal money for conservation. Each class we hold will get the Fish & Game Department a certain amount of money based on number of classes and class size. This will allow our state to battle invasive species, keep populations healthy, and people safe. The best part is that the money can only be used towards fishing conservation.

If you’d like to be more proactive, contact your state’s Fish & Game department. They’re a great resource that people give a bad rap to.

DIY: Homemade Rock Sinkers

Don’t laugh until you read what homemade rock sinkers are all about and my reasoning on why I first tried it. What are sinkers made of? (Lead) Is that healthy to be exposed to? (No) Is it expensive to purchase sinkers? (Yes) See where I’m going with this? Good!

The idea came to me when we were setting lines and ended up tying a rock onto the trot line because the current was so strong nothing else was working. Ancient people used rocks with holes drilled through them as anchors so why wouldn’t it work if I modified it a little? And, yes it does work!

Swivel Sinker Needs: whatever rock size you want to use, swivels, glue

Making your own lead-free swivel sinkers:
1. Be sure the rocks don’t have any sharp edges because it can cut your line.
2. Rough up the part of the rock that you’re going to glue the swivel to. It’ll help your glue hold better.
3. Then just glue it on and allow to dry. Be sure you use a water-proof glue that will work with stone as not all glues will.

Making 100% natural lead-free sinkers:
1. With a 1/8 inch stone bit, drill a hole through the center of the rock.
2. Soften any sharp edges on the rock either by hand or by using a rock tumbler.

I prefer the all stone sinkers because I like my weight to be able to move along the line in a slip sinker rig. My son prefers the swivel sinkers. Both save a ton of money on tackle so are winners!

Chicken Liver on a straight hook?

Anyone who has ever tried to fish with chicken liver, turkey liver, or beef liver know it’s really hard to keep them on a hook. It’s traditional to use a treble hook since it holds the bait better than a straight hook. Then there’s a ton of different schools of thought on how to keep the liver on the treble hook. Everything from wrapping thread around it to tie it on to encasing the entire thing with nylon stockings gets suggested to fix the problem.

What if I told you when I fish with liver I actually just use a straight hook and nothing else? It takes 10 minutes to prepare the liver and it will stay on the hook cast after cast with no problem. All you need is either salt or sugar. Personally, I prefer salt because it’s less messy than sugar, but sometimes the fish prefer the sweet over the savory.

How to prepare:

1. Thoroughly thaw out the liver and reserve the blood in another container.
2. With scissors, cut the larger pieces into the proper bait size.
3. Dump the liver into a large bowl and start adding the salt until all the pieces are coated.
4. Let it sit about 5 minutes and allow the salt to work it’s magic. You’ll see excess water being pulled out of the liver.
5. Feel the liver to see how tough it is. You want it tough enough it doesn’t squish to nothingness but still pliable and moist. If it’s not tough enough, you may need to add additional salt and let it set longer.
6. Once it’s reached the right toughness, transfer the ‘cured’ liver into a container being sure to shake off any loose salt.
7. Add the reserved blood back to the liver.

That’s it and you’re done! Where typically liver only lasts a day or two, treated livers will last months if prepared properly and kept refrigerated when not fishing. If you leave them packed with excess salt you can actually leave the livers stored without refrigeration but they’ll be tougher with a more jerky-like texture. The fish still go crazy for the ‘jerky’ liver just like they do with the ‘cured’ liver.

You can also add garlic salt or powder if fish in your area like that flavor. Or, any other flavoring honestly.

Recipe: Foolproof Flour Tortilla

Yes, you can buy tortillas but have you actually noticed how expensive they are?!? Not to mention all the extra stuff they throw in to keep them shelf safe. Making tortillas is not really much time or effort. Especially when you taste them!

Ingredients for tortillas: 3C flour, 1tsp salt, 1/3C vegetable oil (sometimes I substitute lard or bacon grease YUM!), 1C warm water

Directions: Mix all the ingredients together until it forms a dough. Don’t over work the dough or your tortillas will be chewy! Evenly divide the dough to get uniform sized tortillas (see below). Press out a piece of dough then roll out with a rolling pin. Transfer the tortilla to an ungreased hot pan and cook for 1 minute or until you see brown spots appearing. Flip and repeat.

Taco size tortilla: divide dough into 12
Burrito size tortilla: divide dough into 8

Cost per batch: Less than $2
Cost at store: Approx $4-5
Cook Time: 15min
Savings: $2-3 and a lot of additives!

DIY Mosquito B Gone

This year I’ve developed an allergy to mosquito bites somehow. A single bite blows up to the size of a baseball. Needless to say, as much as I’m outside it’s a big inconvenience! I dislike using DEET for obvious reasons so it’s been research, trial, and error time for a decent safe way to keep the skeeters away. So far, this is what I’ve found that works.

Herb Treatment

I’ve bumped up how much rosemary, mint, and lemongrass I’m growing in the yard. It’s helped significantly reduce the bug population actually. There’s less fleas, ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes. I keep them trimmed regularly to release the scents (which smell heavenly too) and if I don’t need to trim them I’ll still brush against the plants. The extra herbs also help make my own bug b gone spray.

Bug Repellent Spray

This spray also works great as a flea treatment on your animals and is completely safe. I checked with my vet. You can use a crock pot or just let the tea steep in the sun! Fresh herbs work but I’ve found that dried ones seem to pack more of a punch since I can put a higher concentrate in.

Ingredients: 1C rosemary or lavender, 1C mint, 1C lemongrass (all dried or double if fresh)
Directions: Warm 3C water and mix the herbs into it. In a crockpot, allow to steep 24hours. If using the sun, 3 days at least seem to work. Strain tea and put in a dark container to store. In a spray bottle mix 4parts tea to 1part vodka/rubbing alcohol and 1part apple cider vinegar. Just spray as needed!

Mosquito Trap

Yes it works! And it also will help trap flies too. Everything you’ll need to make it you already have probably.

Supplies: empty plastic 2liter bottle, packet of yeast, sugar, and tape

Directions: Cut the bottle like you did making the Bait Trap, invert the top inside the bottom half & tape into place. In a pan, warm 1C water until it’s hot to the touch. Dissolve 2Tbspn of sugar into the water. Then dissolve the packet of yeast into the water. Pour the water mixture into the bottle making sure to leave only about 1/4 inch between the water and the end of the funnel spout. As the yeast eats the sugar it’ll release CO2 and attract the pests!

Change in Diet

For some people this works better than others honestly. Mosquitos, ticks, fleas, and chiggers hate the taste of onions, garlic, and asafoetida, So since these pests dine on our blood it only makes sense that they’ll avoid those who taste like these things right? Just by bumping up my consumption, I’ve watched other people get eaten up by mosquitoes even when they’re wearing DEET sprays while I’m left alone with no spray at all!

Perfume Stinks Pretty to Pests

I know there’s a lot of people who can’t go without perfumed products whether it’s a spray, wash, deodorant, or laundry soap. This time of year, all the pretty smell is going to do is attract bugs. You’re not going to smell bad if you bath regularly and go with lower perfumed products. Plus, you should be bathing more anyway to wash the dried sweat off your body which is another attractant for skeeters.

DIY Basic Catfish Dough Bait

Tis the season to be busy like the ant! We just got done making up another batch of catfish doughballs & I had time to actually share the recipe!

Before you turn your nose up about a prepared bait, I used to be the same way. I always fished with live natural baits whether it was worms, perch, minnows, grasshoppers, etc. My husband turned me on to store bought baits that actually caught fish. Then we brainstormed and have been making our own ever since.

Basic Catfish Dough Bait Recipe

2C flour, 1C whatever flavoring chopped into fine pieces, 1/2C cornmeal, 1/2C water, 1/4C cooking oil, 3Tbspn salt

Mix ingredients until all incorporated and dough is a little tacky. Knead dough to build gluten. That’s what will hold it onto the hook! Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes.

Put a big pot of water on to boil and roll the dough into quarter sized balls. When the water is rapidly boiling, drop balls in and cook for about 60-90 seconds. Remove from water and set on a drying rack overnight.

You can use this basic recipe to make any type of bait you want. Depending on what flavoring you use, you may need to adjust the dry/wet ratio.

Super Mealworm Farm Journey – First Beetle

Today we found our first adult beetle! Plus, it looks like we’ll have 6  more by tomorrow. In a few weeks, we should have our first eggs. I’m so excited to know we’re doing it right. It may seem silly, but each step in their life cycle is an affirmation and we throw a little victory dance.

Yes, it doesn’t take much to excite us and if you’re thinking we’re a family of dorks you’re probably more right than wrong. But…

YAY! A BEETLE!

Outdoor Winter Fun for Kids

All the kids were outside no matter the weather when I was growing up. In summer we drank out of water hoses and in winter we layered and bundled up. Now it’s rare to see kids outside playing during the winter which is a shame. There’s nothing wrong with children being outside during the winter as long as parents make sure they don’t get too cold. With that in mind, here’s a few fun outdoor projects to keep the kiddos busy!

Spray Paint for Snow – You just need spray bottles and food coloring. You can even use an empty mustard bottle to squirt instead of spray. If you use kool-aid instead of food coloring it will even be scented! Mix them up and release the kids to decorate all the whiteness.

Lawn Marbles/Bowling – Fill several balloons with water and food coloring. Set them outside until they’re frozen solid. Cut away the balloon and viola! Have the kids make “pins” out of snow to knock down.

Snow Ice Cream – In a plastic container with a tight lid, pour the ice cream mix. Have the kids roll and toss it around outside.

Vanilla Ice – One of my favorite treats as a kid, we’d catch snow in cups and top with cinnamon vanilla syrup. It always tasted better than sno-cones ever have.

Ice Bubbles – Ever blown bubbles outside in the winter? If they don’t freeze on the wand, they will before they hit the ground!

Winter Cube Hunt – Freeze unsweetened kool-aid or food coloring and water into ice cubes. Then hide them around the yard! For an extra treat, freeze a prize in a few cubes.

Put-Put Ice Golf – Build your own putput course! Use an empty food can buried in the snow for the hole. Trample the snow down for an easy course or leave it rough!

Button Up Frosty – Build a snowman but leave off his buttons. Blindfold the kids and have them try to button frosty up ala pin the tail on the donkey!

And of course, you never go wrong with the traditional snowball fight!