Canning club?

I just wanted o throw this idea out there and get some feedback. I know someone out there has done something similiar or a variation of this and has some good ideas.

My friend and I are starting a "canning club". My father in law has an amazing set up at his place that has a Health Department approved kitchen ( complete with 3 bin sinks, cooler, etc.) He uses this for his own personal canning, meat procurement etc. and my husband and I have used it many times also. There is an oven, stove, commercial dehydrator, meat grinder, and much more stuff in there.

So my friend and I want to start a monthly meeting time when we go over there and do something "homesteading-ey". Since we won't have any produce in February, we thought about doing soap ( which she is great at already) and perhaps laundry detergent . Once our gardens start producing we thought we would do bluberries, strawberries, plums, muscadines, peaches, pears, and then all the veggies from the garden.

I already can a ton of stuff but thought the idea of a monthly little club complete with snack food, good bluegrass on the radio and fellowship would make it even better. Plus 2 sets of hands are better than one.

We also thought that on months that not too much was going on we could do lots of baking and maybe make some freezer meals.

She also is very skilled at crocheting and knitting so I'm hoping some of that talent can be transferred to me..

So what do you think?? Anyone do something like this already? Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions? Can't wait to hear what you all think!

Being Neighborly

Last week on Wednesday my dear daughter ( who is 4) had to have some eye surgery. It was a relatively routine procedure, but she had to be under general anesthesia for it, she was in a lot of pain and just wanted to cuddle that evening when we got home.

At about 4 pm that evening I receive a call from a dear sweet lady that said she had prepared dinner for us that night and would now be a good time to bring it over. Of course my daughter that had just had the surgery couldn't eat, but I had the rest of the family to think of. I had planned on doing something quick and easy, but this was a huge blessing.

She brought over homeade macaroni and cheese, homeade rolls, green bean casserole, a big tossed salad,and a homeade chocolate cake. WOW! It felt so good just having some comfort food that night. We were all exhausted, and let's just face it, food can make you feel better.

It really was such a sweet gesture and I love that when there is any need in the community that someone is stepping up to help.
I hope that I can be a blessing to someone next time they may need a meal provided, due to illness, a new baby or whatever.

Do you provide meals to those in your community? Have you been blessed with a meal lately?

I'm linking this up to Monday Homesteading Barn Hop

What does 2012 hold?

Last year I did a bunch of very concrete goals, with numbers and dates and all that jazz. Typically those are the best kind of goals at least for me, in order for me to complete things. I like to cross things off my list. Well a few things happened last year that slowed me down a bit.
1) We were blessed with a beautiful son. I was pregnant in January and had him in September so I was very nice and pregnant all throughout the summer and early fall when most of the harvest and canning is happening. With 2 other young children in the house I'll be the first to admit that this pregnancy wore on me more than the other two. I just didn't feel like working as much as I normally do, and being 8 months pregnant in the height of summer probably contributed to that.
2) We just had an awful crop this year. It was un normally hot for such a long time that it literally scorched our tomato and pepper plants. No amount of watering helped. We had plenty of veggies that come off later in the summer an into fall like cabbage, greens, squash etc. But the tomatoes and peppers suffered..... It was very sad.

I did manage to put up strawberries, muscadines, peaches, figs, pickles, okra and such, but my lofty goal of putting up tons of tomatoes, pasta sauce, salsa etc. just didn't happen.

We are planning on staggering our planting this year a bit more and are hoping for a milder summer. I can almost taste the sweet tomatoes right now... It won't be (too) much longer..

Here's to a happy, healthy homestead in 2012!

Is it Winter yet?

So it was 60 degrees today. Yes the first week of January and it was 60 degrees! I'm not sure what that means for the rest of "winter" but today was positively BEUATIFUL!
Me and the hubby did some yard work, cleaning out some honeysuckle bushes that are overrunning my favorite snowball bushes. The girls rode their bikes, we put the baby out in his little stroller and he watched us worked.

It was fantastic. I'm getting antsier and antsier for Spring to get here so we can start being outside even more in nice weather. This year I have high hopes for gardening, canning, freezing etc. We got a lot done last year but with me being pregnant, it being so hot and the harvest not being that good, it left us longing for me. I look forward to a wonderful harvest this year, I can almost taste a fresh tomato now... nice and juicy, just off the vine, slightly warm from the sun beating down on it all day long....

I can't wait!!!!

The "Going to town " Phenomenon

When I was growing up it was such a treat to " go to town". We lived out in the country and enjoyed every second of it but it was so much fun going into town with my mom on Saturday mornings. I'm only 29 by the way so it in the grand scheme of things it wasn't all that long ago.

We would make out our lists the night before and mom would check the pantry to see what all we needed. We normally only went 1 time a month but sometimes a trip "to town" would be warranted at least twiced per month. We would normally go by the local co-op and give the clerk our list of feeds we needed for that month. We never had large animals like cattle or horses or anything so it was normally just chicken feed, rabbit feed and maybe some goat feed every so often. We also picked up the dog food there. There were bins of little dog snacks that you put in a brown paper sacked and they weighed it... so much fun for me for some reason. And we would always get two bags of peanuts which also you got from a big bin and put into a brown paper bag. One salted for my dad and he would take that to work with him to munch on, and then just a regular roasted one we would munch on around the house as a treat.

We would go to the grocery store, and then normally on the way home get an ice cream. Anytime that we needed shoes, or jeans or a dress we would also add that trip to our itinerary for when we "went to town". I can still remember my mom saying "put it on your list and we'll get it next time we go to town"!

I guess I'm being nostalgic, because now days many parents run through drive throughs daily, and people shop for shoes and jeans and whatever out of boredom and not out of necessity. Every shop is at most people's fingertips and indulging in those stores and services seems natural to them.

We normally only "go to town" once a month. I do my monthly shopping which I have written about before on my blog. We also go to the same feed store and I let the kids pick out dog treats from the same bins for treats for our dog. They also enjoy peanuts from the same wooden crates I remember. We will swing by the farmer's market if need be, maybe by the fabric store or home improvement store if necessary and call it a day.

I really enjoy having the other Saturdays as free days with the family. Nothing to have to do, just good ole' fashioned fun around the house. It's funny sometimes how times haven't changed that much after all....

Let's Declutter

With 3 little ones I am always looking for time savers and little tips on how to keep a nice tidy home and how to DECLUTTER. I found this cute little site here on decluttering. They offer a free downloadable calendar for the whole year! There are things to do daily that look really great. I have it saved to my computer and look forward to tackling the tiny tasks daily in order to get my home in the order I want it.

The first thing you do on Day one is to set up a donation area for those things that you will be donating. I like to donate and reuse anything and everything possible so I knew this would be a good tool.

Anyone else have trouble with clutter? What are some steps you have done to simplify your life of clutter??

So cute: Reusable snack and sandwich bags

I have one daughter in school who of course takes her lunch. My husband and I also take our lunches to work. When we travel we like to take healthy snacks also. Today at Dealpulp there is a great deal on reusable snack and sandwich bags. Buy a voucher for only $15 and receive $30 worth of Reusable items. Not only are these better on the environment than throwing away all of your disposable items, but they are cuter also. Also, it doesn't take too long to rack up $15 worth of Ziploc type baggies, so you will be saving money.
I bought 2 deals, one for our family and one for my best friend who has a birthday coming up! Thanks for checking it out.