Homestead Update - January

 Homesteading is a journey. Some months you accomplish your goals by leaps and bounds. Other months, you fall back a few steps.

The important part is to keep working hard to progress forward in your goals. It doesn't happen overnight. Many websites make it seem easy, but it isn't. It takes baby steps to get to the big projects. So, I'm starting this monthly homesteading update to share our progress and setbacks. I hope that you find them useful in your journey of homesteading. 

January

- I rendered lard.

I found some pasture-raised, locally grown pork fat and wanted to see if I could make my own lard. I've never been great at making pastries or other baking and I'm sure that this has to do with not having enough lard on hand and nothing at all to do with my haphazard measuring techniques. 

I found some great advice from this video from Deep South Homestead:

https://youtu.be/6WCRaw2OYRE?list=PLrUouAskiMhVdcadZTWi5eF8Qhq77F1MK

I tend to get distracted easily and didn't want the bottom to burn so instead of using the stovetop, I used a crockpot. I found this idea from Melissa K. Norris in this video:

https://youtu.be/V-sJziDF4Ko?list=PLrUouAskiMhVdcadZTWi5eF8Qhq77F1MK

(I attempted to embed the videos but ran into tech issues.)

The lard turned out very clean, pretty and white. I hope that I can make it into a great pie crust soon. 

One bad thing about the process was that the house smelled bad (I think I did end up scorching it a bit!). The hubby was not a fan of the process but I'm hoping that he will be happy with the resulting pie if I ever get around to making it. 

- I found a sale on pineapple so I purchased a bunch and froze the ones that we didn't immediately eat.

- We have an old fridge that decided to stop working.

Luckily, we discovered the malfunction in time to save everything. We quickly loaded up the frozen items and delivered them to my parent's house where we took over all of their remaining freezer space. We have been wanting a stand-up freezer for a while but after this issue, the freezer was pushed higher on the priority list. We found a newer, but slightly used freezer and have set it up in our home. 

- We continued to bake bread using our bread machine. 

For details on this one, check out this blog:

#11 Breadmaking Tips for Dummies (Like Me!) – PJ's Projects (pjsprojects.com)

- We continued to make our own mayo and butter. 

I am working on developing habits with our food and we have been successful with the substitution of our own mayo. I enjoy making the butter, but we consume more butter in our home than I can make with the limited amount of milk that we purchase per week. I continue to make a few occasional batches, but it doesn't replace our store-bought butter. 

- I found new ways to use orange peels.

I found a good deal on an automatic juicer and treated myself to this unnecessary appliance (aka: toy). It is truly a fun machine to have and use in the home. It makes freshly squeezed orange juice a fun activity. Since I was enjoying this new "toy" I had a lot of orange peels left over.

I used added orange peels with vinegar to make a homemade window cleaner. Then, I discovered that we had more cleaner than we really needed. I probably should have used this as an excuse to wash our windows more often but who really wants to do that one?!

I added orange peels to olive oil. After this infused, I have been using the oil as a wood conditioner. 

I read later that you can dehydrate the orange peels and then grind them into a powder. The powder can be used in any cooking dishes that would call for orange zest. I wish I had taken the time to try this one out but I simply ended up composting the rest of the peels. 

- The hubby and the kids moved and completed the construction of the swing set.

- The hubby and the kids put together our new basketball goal.

 - The hubby built a shelving unit for better organization and storage of raw lumber.

- Our chicken roost fell down.

In order to save himself another trip into town, the hubby used short screws to construct the chicken roost. It gave out and fell. This became a project for my oldest son. He attempted to fix it a few different ways and learned that tape and zip ties will work for many things, but they will not hold up to the weight of several roosting chickens. He eventually figured it out and we have an effective roost. 

- I made some baby food.

Making baby food is really simple. I throw the vegetable or fruit into a blender with some water and hit a button.

After it is pureed, I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. When they are frozen, I remove the food cubes from the trays, place them in Ziploc bags and return them to the freezer. 

When we need food for the baby, we take a couple of cubes from the freezer bag and warm them up in the bottle warmer. 

- I made elderberry syrup. 

I have tried different ways but my favorite is this one from Noelle's Naturals:

Elderberry Syrup DIY Kit – Noelle's Naturals (noellesnaturals.com)

You dump the ingredients in a pan with water. Simmer down the water. Let it cool. Add honey and store it. 

- The hubby installed heat in the garage. 

The garage was turned into my workspace for all things PJ's Projects. Not only did the cold temperatures deter me from making progress on my projects but the many cans of paint and other supplies need a controlled temperature.

He fixed the electrical and mounted the heater onto the wall. Now, my workspace is toasty warm all year long!

- Our goat became tangled up in our fence.

We use electrical netting fence to allow us to easily rotate our goats. The power for this fence is solar. When the sun hides behind clouds for several days, the fence can no longer supply an electric shock. The goat learned this but found herself caught in the netting. Luckily, we were there to see her get tangled and quickly freed her before she got hurt or the fence was damaged. We learned that we need to pay more attention to the fence charger especially on cloudy days. 

- I ordered chicks. 

We had debated whether or not to add to our current flock as we are getting enough eggs to meet our family's dietary needs. After much consideration, we decided to expand the flock and use the chickens for more than just eggs (more on that project later). We ordered 30 more chicks to be delivered around mid-March. 

- I planted Kratky lettuce under grow lights.

I have been missing my salads so I decided to set up a few Kratky jars. I have used this system in the past with great success and while I don't plan to add this method to my year-round gardening, I truly appreciate having my own fresh salad greens in the middle of winter. 

- During the winter, we are utilizing old hay and wood shavings for the animal's deep bedding.

If you research deep bedding methods, you will almost always find woodchips as the answer. We have tried to find locally sourced woodchips but it hasn't been financially nor logistically feasible at this time. So, we are using what we have available to us. Our property didn't produce very good hay for feeding the animals but it is great for deep bedding. This is working well when mixed with the abundance of wood shavings being produced by the hubby's sawmilling business. I hope that when scattered over the garden areas in the spring that we will see the same success with the fertility of the soil. 

- I ordered seeds. 

I enjoy spending the cold, dreary days of winter planning for the upcoming spring weather and gardening. One thing that I can do to prepare for the garden is to order seeds. I had a lot of help from my munchkins in choosing the different varieties. 

- We purchased another chainsaw, a brushcutter and safety equipment. 

The fencelines on our property have been ignored for many years. We have to update them in order to put more animals on our property. We intended to allow the goats to clear out the fencelines for us, but we simply cannot wait on them any longer and must get these fences fixed. So, we purchased the equipment needed to clear the areas around the fence so that we could repair certain portions and plan to replace other portions. 

- We worked together to clear the brush from the fence. 

The hubby utilized the chainsaw. Our oldest was taught how to use the brushcutter and the rest of us followed behind as the cleanup crew. The baby joined in the fun by sleeping in the carrier on my back. 

- We had to put our dog down. 

This is the reason why the post was so late in being published. I have struggled with this situation. Our Australian Shephard dog, Rosco, was put down and I blame myself for it. 

Before we moved, Rosco routinely played with our neighbor's dog. It was a great arrangement as both dogs had a lot of energy and they found enjoyment together. After we moved, I wanted our dog to have another friend. We adopted a Great Pyrenees/Lab mix early in the year 2022. Then, life kicked us in the teeth, and we spent the majority of the year simply surviving. 

I barely noticed when Rosco bullied the new puppy. When I did notice, I justified it as his way of being the dominant male dog. 

I noticed that he kept the delivery people away but justified it as his way of protecting the family. 

I noticed that he was underfoot wanting more attention. However, I had many things needing my attention after returning home from my long hospital stay and I was overwhelmed. I gave him a quick pat on the head and moved on. 

Honestly, I didn't notice anything else with regards to his behavior. Maybe that was the problem. I was so distracted with other things that I didn't ensure that he received the attention that he deserved. 

His behavior worsened to the point that he attacked our daughter. We think that she may have gotten too close to one of his bones (he had been collecting deer bones from carcasses left by the neighbors). He didn't cause any serious harm and backed away soon afterwards but the fact that he aggressively went after our child could not be ignored. We acted immediately. We could not keep a violent dog. We considered giving him away but felt that we couldn't, in good conscience, give away an animal that has shown hostile tendencies towards a child. It was a very difficult decision, but we felt that it was best. We put him down. 

Some days on the homestead are very difficult. This one was on the top of that list.  

I'm sorry, Rosco. I hope that you rest in peace.