Planning my Urban Homesteading Adventure

My back yard...the blank canvas. Approximately 1/4 of an acre to work with. 

Spring is right around the corner, and I am going nuts waiting for it to get here. I know that  time is precious right now, as there is so much to be done in preparation to start our first year of "urban homesteading" if you can call it that when you are renting...

Here are a few things we have planned:

Chickens- We moved to Wyoming 4 months ago, into a city that allows chickens! I have been wanting chickens for years, but have never been able to. To say I am excited is an understatement. Along with chickens, we have tons of other plans, but chickens and raised beds for a  garden are at the top of our list. 

In front of the red shed there is a frame that must have been used as a garden or something, but we are building our coop in it and fencing it in.

As far as what kind of coop...I am still leafing through books and magazines, and checking out websites to find the perfect one. Chickens start arriving on March 1st! I have to get BUSY! 

Raised beds and square-foot gardening- Last year was my first attempt at square-foot gardening, and for the time that I was there to tend to the ONE bed I had, we were harvesting quite a bit of food. We were a part of a community garden, and at the end of the summer decided to move here. I gave my bed to the local food pantry, and have NO idea what the final harvest looked like. I bet it was intense. We had 20 tomato plants in an 8x4 bed. I WILL NOT do that again. It was nuts. 

This past weekend my good friend stopped in at Home Depot and gave me a call. They had a bunch of  culled 2x6 boards. Each board is about 4 feet long, so instead of doing 8x4 beds, I am going to do as many 4x4 beds as I possibly can. Culled lumber is only $.51 a piece! 

Here is what I am planting:

beets

spinach

red carrots

radishes

a bunch of leaf lettuce

chard

Hubbard squash

Sweet meat winter squash

cayenne peppers

jalapeños

5 different kinds of tomatoes (including yellow pear and cherry)

bell peppers

bush beans

zucchini

summer squash

sweet corn 

and a bunch of herbs

It's the biggest garden I've ever had and I am really looking forward to preserving food for the first time as well! I think I will do a lot of dehydrating and some canning. 

These beds are filled with marigolds and mums. I think I am going to leave the marigolds that are on the bottom bed, and plant herbs in the top two. 

Angora Rabbits- IF I can find any, we are going to raise Angora's. I would really like start this spring, but it may have to wait until next year. Angora's are hard to find in these parts. At least from what I can tell. 

This will be an awesome adventure in harvesting our own fiber for knitting and crocheting projects in the winter. 

The rest is just a list at this point:

Vermiculture bin for kitchen scraps

Compost 

Grey water recycling 

Outdoor oven of some sort- cob, solar, etc. 

So, those are the plans for this year and we feel so blessed to have a place to carry them out. God has truly blessed us. 

Happy homesteading, folks!

My Opinion on the Ugly Urban Homesteading Trademark

On my own path to freedom I am going to start my urban homestead this spring; a little homestead in the city, per se. Oh wait…I can DO it, I just can’t talk about without giving credit to The Dervaes Institute.

Many of you have probably heard the news about the Dervaes family of Pasadena, California, and their recent (started in 2008) trademark of certain terms like urban homestead or urban homesteading. This has frustrated the urban homesteading community and has a lot of people wondering what they can say and what they can't. I don't offer any advice really, this is after all, just my opinion, and quite honestly, a rant that has been brewing for the past 48 hours. 

Their registered trademark will not stand a chance in court, if it ends up being challenged. ( Here is a petition to challenge the trademark )You can not lay claim to an idea that started prior to your use of it or implementation of it.

Can I trademark the term “homeschool” or “homeschooling”? I do not have exclusive rights to that term. I did not “coin” it nor was I the first one to implement the idea of homeschooling in my own life.

I am disappointed in the Dervaes family. In casting off the bonds of corporate America, they became a corporation themselves.

As for using the terms “urban homestead” or “urban homesteading” and having to put a big fat ™ after each of those generic terms used by people all over the globe, I will not do it. Nor will I put a big fat ™ after the word Meijer or Blackberry when making reference to them. Will those trademarked companies hunt me down and force me to give them credit for using their “name”…no, I really doubt it.

I think the following letter from the Institute of Urban Homesteading to its students (after receiving one of the “letters” from the Dervaes family, is great. It proves that the Dervaes family is in fact sending out those “letters”.  Response letter from the Institute of Urban Homesteading

What it boils down to is this: Registering a trademark is not the issue. There are many trademarked phrases or words (that the Dervaes family points out here Path to Freedom- "The original urban homesteaders") that we as a community of “simple living-backyard garden folk” use every day: “hobby farm”, “square foot gardening”, and “gardener”, to name just a few. The issue is not whether or not these terms are trademarked, the issue is whether or not the “owners” of those trademarks are going to hunt down every organization in the nation and put them in a legal headlock to try and stop everyone from using “THEIR” word. It seems counterproductive to the urban homesteading movement itself. If I want to have a little farm and name it Monica’s Hobby Farm are the owners of the magazine “Hobby Farm” going to care? I don’t know, maybe they would…but I highly doubt it.

The Dervaes corporation wants us to link back to them every time we use the phrase urban homestead because they started the concept and were the "first" to implement it…sorry to tell them, but urban homesteading was in my vocabulary long before I happened upon their site a year ago.

With that said…I am really looking forward to getting my chickens and planting my garden this year. I hope to one day have an urban homestead of my own…or should I say non-rural yard garden. Maybe I’ll move out to the country and trademark the word “Farm”.

If I seem a little perturbed…I am. I shall move on, I shall continue on my path to freedom and venture into my own urban homesteading adventure, but some things are just not right. 

For the record- the path to freedom, the original path to freedom, is Yahshua our Messiah, the Word of Yahweh, and the Spirit of Truth.  So now, every time those words are used..."path to freedom" do we have to link back to The Dervaes Institute?

One more thing- The Dervaes family states that they wanted to trademark the aforementioned terms to keep it out of the hands of greedy corporate giants, and for that, I commend them. What happened after is what most people have an issue with. They became the greedy corporate giant. 

“ We didn’t come up the name but we came up with the application.... We didn’t mean to bully anyone. These marks are what people do to make sure no one infringes on their ideas – they’re to give people who develop something protection. That’s why people like Apple and Nike do it. We did what other normal people would have done.” - Jules Dervaes

(You came up with the application? I think they believe they are the only urban homesteaders in the world. What else could you possibly mean by that? And for the record...Nike ain't normal people. They have possibly one of the worst enslavement, er...manufacturing practices in the world.)

Trademark the phrase, then let others use it just as they have been all along. Then, IF some corporation that does not have a clue about urban homesteading comes along and uses the phrase to sell one of their over-priced products made in China, just to bank on the name, THEN send one of those letters. THEN you can try to protect it. But, don't try to protect it from the people that are trying to move it forward and make it an every day common term, and more than that, a common implementation. 

Who are you?

If you are a believer in Jesus/Yahshua the Messiah, what do you call yourself? Who do you say you are? What does the bible say about you? What does the bible call you? Do you know?

You should.

This is the stepping off point. Once you grasp this fact, your life will never be the same. I promise you. Spend an hour watching the following video, PLEASE! If you call yourself a Christian, WATCH this.

Another Homemade: Toothpaste

The toothpaste looks rather gross all sloshy in the jars, as I look at them now. At the time, I thought this was the cutest pic ever. Ah well, it was late.

Regardless of the sloshy messy look of the toothpaste, it serves its purpose and is quite cheap! 

Here is our recipe:

8 T. coconut oil

12 T. baking soda

between 20-40 drops of the essential oil of your choice. 

Combine the coconut oil and baking soda and mix until the baking soda is fully incorporated into the coconut oil. 

Add essential oil, and mix thoroughly. 

Put a bit into individual jars or other containers for each of your family members. 

Remember, this is coconut oil, so depending on the temperature of the bathroom, your toothpaste might be runny or very solid. 

Homemade Face Wash

(Those are my little glass jars I got this past week on my thrifting trip.)

My skin is dry, it's oily, it cracks and peels, and then it produces way to much oil. I thought I was cursed with bad skin. No pimples, or anything like that, just crocodile skin around my nose, between my eyebrows and under my chin. That is, until I STOPPED using expensive store bought facial cleansers and decided to come up with my own. 

It's quite simple actually, on most days I just use a simple castile soap to gently cleanse my face. But, there are times, especially in winter, that I see that the return of the dreaded crocodile skin is imminent. So, a few times a week I mix together in my little Saki cup (above) a bit of organic course grained sugar, honey, baking soda, liquid castile soap and a tad bit of water, make a thick paste and give my dry areas a good scrub. The sugar scrubs away the dead and drying skin, the castile soap whisks away dirt and oil, and the honey softens my skin like nothing else. The baking soda...well, I have just become accustomed to adding it...I'm sure it does something good. :~)

Once a week or so, I'll make a bigger batch and scrub my entire body down with it. I love the feel of my skin after a good scrub down. It's so soft, and just has a glow to it. 

When my skin is extra dry and sensitive, I'll grind up a bit of oatmeal in the blender and add that to my mixture. If I'm out of sugar, I'll use cornmeal or salt. Sometimes a bit of lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar is nice to add to the mix. There are so many variations to a homemade face wash. Use what you have, and find what works for you. 

In the summer, as I become less dry and more oily, I use glycerin water to moisturize my face. In the winter, when I need a good thick moisturizer, I use coconut oil. Last year I used olive oil, but I find the coconut oil to absorb considerably better than olive oil. I LOVE it, and it smells like a mounds bar :~) I do have a stick of cocoa butter that I use when I need some serious, serious moisturizing, but other than that, there are no lotions of any sort in my home, something that I thought would NEVER be possible. 

I love my little glass jars. I can keep a tiny bit of my kitchen ingredients right there in the bathroom. It's so convenient and pretty. 

What's even better than convenience, to me anyway, is the frugality of it all. I love saving my husband money and finding creative uses for what we already have in the house. It's one of my favorite things. 

Thrifting Finds

I love laying out all my thrift store finds.

 clothes drying rack $1

5 wide mouth quart sized canning jars $.25 each

real military issued combat boots (for my son) $1

 half bushel basket $.50 

4 glass jars with glass lids $.25 each

spoon rest $.25

clay jar with cork stopper- over priced at $1, but I've been searching for one

The Joy of Cooking cookbook $.50 

Book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle $1

 8 glass spice jars $.50 for all

zebra print collar for my pooch Rufus $.25

 cheese grater which I needed for zesting $.25 

tongs-can't ever have too many tongs-$.25

barrette-free because she forgot to ring it up and just gave it to me

 spool holder for thread $1

 Crepe Cookery cookbook $.50

and one leather and wicker bag that is totally awesome $2.50

 (Not pictured here is the black hook dealy that is pictured down farther and I picked that up for $3)

All for under $16

 

I'm so excited about these. I LOVE containers. 

This was a little pricey ($2.50), but I just couldn't resist this. It is super sturdy and well, just cool. 

Here's that black hook dealy that I forgot to put in the picture above. 

I think it's going to go in my kitchen. I need something to hang our aprons from. 

I can't wait to use this, either for drying clothes or pasta! It's great, and for $1? I could not pass it up.

I have been wanting to make crepes and this is going to give me the motivation to do it. 

The Joy of Cooking? A classic must have that I didn't have.

I love to go thrifting and so do my kiddos. I hate spending retail for anything because I know sooner or later I'll find what I need at the thrift store. I love that my husband finds pleasure in seeing all the things I find, and that he never complains about this great love of mine :~) When I bring home a table full of useful things, he knows I've spent his money well. He knows I am happy and that we are well taken care of. Before winter I bought my youngest son and myself each a pair of nice winter boots at the thrift store for a total of $1.00. I saved probably $60 on that purchase because I didn't have to buy them new.

After moving to Wyoming with whatever we could fit in the back of our Explorer, I needed to replace a lot of stuff. Thrifting has made it possible for us to have "new" furniture, cookware, blankets, and other needful things. It is amazing to me that when we need something, the Father knows it, and more times than not, I find it at a thrift store. 

Homemade Laundry Soap

There are so many great recipes out there for laundry soap. I had some criteria that needed to be met while researching a recipe I was going to use for my own soap. It had to be cheap, super easy, have readily accessible ingredients and of course it had to CLEAN.

I first started using equal parts of borax, washing soda, and grated felsnaptha soap, but after two weeks of washing my clothes, they became stinky from the felsnaptha. So, since Ivory soap is so cheap I decided to go with that.

Here is my recipe:

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup powdered Ivory soap

Grate your Ivory soap with a cheese grater and then whiz it in a blender until it has a more powdered consistency. I find that if you leave the bars unwrapped for about a week before you grate and whiz, the soap is dried out and is much easier to handle.

Mix equal parts of the borax, washing soda,  and the powdered soap together and whiz in the blender. Do this again and again, a small amount at a time, until all your ingredients are blended together.

I store my laundry powder in an old coffee container. Use 1-2 tablespoons per load. Shake the container every once in a while as the soap is heavier than the rest of the ingredients and sort of settles a bit.

For an all natural fabric softener and laundry rinse, fill a downy ball half full with white vinegar and pop that into your wash. No need for any other fabric softeners and the vinegar will clean the soap residue from your washer and clothes! It's great. You can add a few drops of essential oil, like lavender in your downy ball as well.

I like the powdered soap because it's easy. Our clothes get clean and the Ivory soap makes them smell great. I am sure you could use any soap you wanted, but I like Ivory because its cheap and doesn't contain a lot of the harsh chemicals that other soaps contain. It's definitely better than felsnaptha in the chemical department! It's about $3.50 for 10 bars. That's an awesome price.

Enjoy!

Family Cloth

The alternate title of this blog post was "Mom's Crazy Ideas", and was probably my family's preferred title, since they definitely do think I'm nuts.

"What is family cloth?" you might be asking yourself. That was what my family asked, as well. They had an idea, but their idea was far from what "family cloth" actually is.

So what is it? 

Reusable toilet cloth!

I know...I know. It sounds crazy. But, I tell you, lots of people are doing it. I have been on a quest to lower our monthly budget and simplify, for quite a few years. We stopped using paper towels, paper plates and other such non-essentials and have not gone back. We have a stockpile of dish towels and rags and find them to be quite useful in soaking up messes. So, I suppose family cloth was the next logical step. 

We spend, on average, depending on the brand, no less than $1.00 a day on toilet paper. Maybe this is an expense you are willing to pay for the convenience of toilet paper, but my goal is to give you enough information that you will at least want to try family cloth. $365 a year is a lot of money to spend on something you are just going to throw in the toilet! We've been using family cloth for a little over two weeks now, and I love it. My family has stopped thinking I am crazy (well, at least in this area) and I actually heard from my 14 year old son, "mom, family cloth isn't so bad". 

It cleans better. Doesn't leave little paper dust behind. It's pretty. Smells good. Easy to use. Easy to make. Cheap. And is saving us money! 

So...how do ya do it?

Gather old cotton t-shirts or flannel shirts. Cut out seams and make large squares out of the material. Cut those large squares into smaller 5 x 5 inch squares. Sew two together to make an extra thick cloth. 

Get yourself a small plastic bin, like the one above. Mine cost about $2 from walmart. It has a hinged lid that clips down, sort of like a baby wipes container. You can use one of those as well! Anything will work as long as it has a lid as these are moist wipes and you don't want them drying out.

Place your finished cloths in the bin and mix up a cup of wipes solution. There are many recipes out there, but I am using this one at the moment.

2 drops lavender essential oil

1 drop eucalyptus oil

1 T. glycerin

1/2 t. Doctor Bronner's liquid castile soap

1 cup of purified water

You can find tons of recipes at this site that I just love. Makes me want another baby...well, everything makes me want another baby :-)

So...anywho, mix up your solution and pour over your wipes. Flip them over a few times to get them all saturated and then squeeze out any excess liquid. You don't want them sopping wet, just damp. Also, please note that I have only filled my bin about half way full. You don't want your wipes sitting in there wet for more than a few days. Only put about three days worth of wipes in, as you are going to want to wash these every three days. You'll find out how much solution and how many wipes are right for your family as you start using them.

Now for the part that makes people cringe. What do you do...after...?

I bought this 10 gallon garbage bin at walmart for $5. Add a few drops of tea tree oil, maybe 5 drops or so, I forget to count :-) and then fill the bin half full with water. This is going to be your "soaking" water for three days. Every time you use your family cloth, you are going to stick it in the bin after you use it. The tea tree oil inhibits the growth of bacteria, you can add a few drops of eucalyptus oil as well, as it does the same thing.

After three days, empty the water as best as you can in the toilet, being careful not to dump your family cloth in there as well! Wash the cloths in your washing machine with hot water. I soak mine in hot water first and then do a regular wash. They come out clean every time and do not smell. I don't even use regular store bought detergent, I use a homemade soap and they still come out clean and smelling fresh.

You don't have to dry these, just stick them back in the lidded bin and add your solution. Easy peasy!

I love family cloth and we will continue to use it. We still have toilet paper for company, but I think for the most part, my family is using the cloth, at least part of the time.

This might not be for everybody, but I think it is awesome after you get past the "ew" factor. Have fun, and experiment; just keep it by the toilet and see what happens. My husband and son both used it on their own volition and both liked it!

Mung Beans! Yum Beans!

Spicy Mung Beans with Tomato and Onions
This is one of my favorite foodie blogs. Vegetarian, simple, healthy, and creative. Lisa's Kitchen has tons of recipes that incorporate chickpeas, mung beans, and other legumes that I love. Eating biblically clean foods has forced us to eat more legumes and less meat, just because we can not find local, pastured, and affordable meats. Finding recipes like this one makes me happy! Thank you, Lisa's Kitchen, for once again giving me more creative ideas for the beloved bean!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

I am so excited about Thanksgiving, which has to be my most favorite American holiday. I love the smells, the season, the friends and family and the FOOD! Oh, the food...

I thought I'd post our menu plan for all to see and the links to some of the recipes. I LOVE www.allrecipes.com . It is my go to recipe sight when I am looking for something to make. One of my favorite things about it is the fact that there are photos of the food. I am a visual person, and if I can see the picture of how it is supposed to look, I feel like I can do a better job at preparing it.


Turkey
20 lbs. Brined and roasted by my dear friend over at Declared Unto Him

Mashed potatoes and homemade gravy
The recipe for the gravy will have to wait because I have no idea how much of what I put in. Basically, it's just a bechemel sauce, except you substitute the butter with drippings, and use stock instead of milk. I still use some milk, just to make it creamier.  I add chicken stock to the potatoes to give them more flavor without adding a lot of fat. I'm making my stock today.

Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing 
I am assembling this on Wednesday without the liquid so I can just pop it in the oven on Thursday. Just add the stock and melted butter before you cook it. Add a little more liquid if you are cooking it outside of a turkey. *Turkey sausage NOT pork, never pork :~)


Cranberry sauce
Two bags of cranberries
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c orange juice
a smidge of ginger

Dissolve sugar and OJ in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in cranberries and cook until they pop. Refrigerate till cool. Garnish with orange peel if you like...I don't like. Making this Wednesday.

Roasted Russet and Sweet potatoes
Peel both sweets and russets and cube
Toss with olive oil, enough to coat. Salt, pepper, curry powder, a smidge of cinnamon and cardamom, a smidge of coriander, and a tad bit of brown sugar, and toss again. Roast on baking sheet lined with parchment paper @ 425 degrees for about 40-50 minutes. I'm putting these in the oven an hour before the stuffing (2 hours before dinner) and then tossing them in a hot crockpot till everything else is ready to be served. I'll have two racks of these roasting so the cooking time might need to be increased and trays might need to be rotated.

Grandma's Egg Custard Pie
Never done this before...we'll see how it goes. I made a practice custard this week, and it tasted great but was a little watery. Hoping the pies turn out better. I'm making these on Wednesday.

Pumpkin Pie
Your basic, back-of-the-can recipe. Nothing fancy :-) Making Wednesday.

My lovely friends are bringing apple pie, corn, cider and dinner rolls and the TURKEY!

We will be feasting! Then probably fasting...

This is our first Thanksgiving in a new place, away from all of our family. Wyoming is treating us well. I am beginning to meet people, but still miss home terribly. I am really looking forward to hosting this dinner though, and loving people in my most favorite way, and that is to FEED them. :~) 

Wow, do I feel better getting this all out and seeing it on the screen. I have made list upon list, but I finally have it organized and figured out to a T. Now, I just need to locate a few more chairs...