Chickens

On our homestead we have a mixture of Barred Rock and Rhode Island Reds.  There are 4 roosters and 28 hens.  Our chickens are completely free range, by free range I mean, no coop only nesting boxes up in the area were they get fed.  At night they sleep under the camper with our 4 dogs for protection.  When we moved here we started with 39 chickens, we now have 32 chickens.  We lost all the chickens before Christmas. 

When the chickens started laying we were happy, finally some return for our investment.  The only problem, finding all the eggs everyday is a treasure hunt.  Our chickens lay eggs in the nesting boxes, under our two decks, in the woods, in the brush, under IBC's, in the cars, under the hood of the car, in the wheel wells, and just about anywhere else they see fit.  I am quite sure that we aren't getting all the eggs, but we are still getting a good amount of eggs per day. 

Chicken inside the truck.  Gotta make sure that the windows are rolled up!

Another problem that we are having is that two of our dogs are eating the eggs.  So we have to figure out what to do, pen the dogs up until late afternoon or pen the chickens up.

The two egg eating dogs.

All in all, DH and I are still split on having the chickens free range or putting them in a pen and letting them out for some of the day.  Many pros and cons to both ways.  This debate will continue for a while I think.

Yogurt

I have got a new kitchen gadget! A yogurt maker.  This is not the first one that I have owned.  When I was teaching and living out in the bush of Alaska we owned one.  We used it all the time, because buying food in the village was expensive.

After weeks of discussion and price analysis we decided to buy one.  We researched the prices and reviews.  We finally decided on the EuroCuisine.

The EuroCuisine

Heating the milk on the wood stove

Yogurt ready to go

We made our first batch on Monday.  The yogurt was all eaten up by Wednesday.  The DH and kiddos all made smoothies with it.  I ate a jar of it with granola.  It was yummy.  Next I will try some flavored yogurt.


Since we are on a budget it is more frugal to make our own yogurt than by buying yogurt.  Here is a break down of the financials for the yogurt.

Homemade (1qt):  $1.79
Milk: $.80  One gallon will make 4 qts of yogurt
Yogurt starter:  $.97  Used plain greek yogurt from Aldi's
Electricity Usage:  $.02

Store Bought (1 qt):
Aldi's (Store Brand):  $3.89
Local Grocery Store:  $4.89

Price of Maker: $24

Making our own yogurt saves us $2.10 for each quart, however, I feel that we need to take into consideration the cost of the yogurt maker.  With that figured into the equation, after our 12th batch of yogurt we will be saving money.  Even considering this, I think that this was a wise investment for us.

                          

Firewood

A couple weeks ago, we obtained a firewood permit from Mark Twain National Forest.  It cost $20 for 4 cords of wood and expires in June.  You are only allowed to cut downed trees.  My husband and I had scoped out several areas of downed trees.  We decided that we would cut and split, by hand, there in the forest.
Yesterday, my husband and sons left out about 8 am to start cutting and splitting.  My girls and I walked over to the area about 9:30, bringing water and snacks.  Boy were the guys glad to see us, they promptly took a water and snack break.  The girls and I jumped in and helped cart the wood to the truck for my youngest son to stack in.

All in all we filled up the truck two times and got about 1/2 cord of wood.  All of this wood is white and red oak from 1 1/4 trees.

One of the logs that DH cut off a limb.

Kindling pile

meeting with kids

Last month I started my organization notebook.  I scoured the Internet and Pinterest finding daily to do lists, etc to help get organized.  One of the things that I did  was have a section for each of the kids.  I found a personal interview sheet onhttp://preparednotscared.blogspot.com/.   I used this sheet last month with the younger three kiddos, my 19 year old wasn't all that interested in meeting with me.  I decided that I like a lot of what this sheet has but tweaked it to meet my family.  This is what my sheet now looks like:
personal interview sheet

Every month the kids are going to have two goals, one personal and one academic.  All the kids are working on a financial goal of saving their allowance.   My 13 year old is learning how to bake a cake, 7 year old is going to read 5 books, 4 year old is working on trying new foods (she is extremely picky). 

My kids really like meeting with me, sharing, and talking.  Hopefully, this is going to help the kids become more independent.  I think that this is helping because when my 4 year old would stop and say "Oh, I am working on not saying that.  I'm sorry."  That in itself is a victory!

Were on indiegogo

Just a little plug for our farm.  My husband and I are trying to get crowd funding for our farm, Crazy Chicken Farm.  Check it out on www.indigogo.com

Also check out all the other people out there crowd funding too.

Thanks

Mandy & Joe

How I keep track of our finances

When we moved to MO we weren't really worried with our finances.  Don't get me wrong, we have always been frugal.  We have always went to the thrift stores for all of our clothes, occasionally I would have to buy work clothes from a discount store or dollar store (Dollar General).  We would frequent the thrift stores several times a week for deals.  We would buy school supplies, books, presents, toys, anything that you can think of that a person would need.  We never realized how much we would spend. 

We are now living on a very limited income and we need some new ideas to incorporate into our budget.  So, I started this new way of tracking our spending.  My program, which is ever evolving, is done on a spreadsheet.  Let's take a look at March:

Every day I tally our water usage, electricity usage, and auto gas usage.  I also have an area for notes for today.  On the other side is this:

This is where I tally the total amount spent for shopping, total for the day, & the egg count.  I know I haven't finished with the eggs, and I have to put in some more receipts for two days.

I know, your thinking oh my goodness, but it is helping us figure out where our spending is and how we can cut our spending.

Okay on to the food expenses:

Everyday I record what we eat and the price that it costs us.  It is then totaled for the day and the month.  I have a cell for fast food.  I also have determined the average for each person in our household.

On this spreadsheet I have tabs for groceries, animals, house expenses, gifts, homesteading, goals for the year, month comparison, and utilities.  Ideally every time we go shopping I input the information on the corresponding sheet.  It seems time consuming but I spend about 10 minutes a day typing in information and on days that I input receipts I can spend up to 1 hour, depending on how much shopping was done.

Amazingly we have seen that our junk food buying in December was to much, so in January we really watched this spending.  It followed through to February.

As I said this spreadsheet is ever evolving, I see things everyday that needs to be added, or it is just not helping with our budgeting.  We now constantly ask ourselves, do we really need to go to town?  What can we do to combine our trips, because let's face it gas is not cheap!

Our move to Missouri

Well in Sept. of 2013 we finally made the move to MO to start our homestead.  We bought the land back in 2007 when it had just been timbered.  Here is our first couple of months here, after we cut all the briars, grass, and trees.

Our first couple of days here.

Looking off to the east from the camper area.  Behind all this brush is a large brush pile, leftover scab wood.

Looking North at the cleared area.

We are still working on this general area.  Making it bigger and putting in garden beds.  Our chickens are completely free range right now.  They sleep under the camper with our four dogs for protection and the nests are in a corpse of trees.  More on this in another post.

chicken nest

Since we have some nice warm days coming up we will be working outside quite a bit.  This is what it has looked like, more or less, since December.

South View -- This is one of our dogs, Piano

When it didn't look like this it was muddy or just too cold to get out and do much.

Rag Rug

I have been wanting to make a rag rug forever.  I have finally started working on it.  I have been working on it on and off for almost a week.  I am using old sheets that I had used in my old classroom as bulletin board backs.  It is yellow, blue, and plaid.  I have completed several yards so far.  I work on it while I am watching TV or like yesterday when DH was watching the race.  My two girls love to help me.  My oldest girl helps with sewing the strips together and with cutting the threads.  My youngest girl helps with cutting the threads.  They are enjoying helping.  I will post a picture when I finish.

Rice Cheeseburgers

Okay, I know that the rice cheeseburgers are on the menu for Sunday night, but due to a mishap with my oldest son, we had leftovers on Sunday.  Last night I made the rice cheeseburgers.  I used the recipe from the cook book American Wholefoods Cookbook by Nikki & David Goldbeck.  I made these according to the recipe and they tasted really good.  Of course I had to double the recipe due to the 6 of us, 2 of them are teenage boys.  I sautéed some onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms for the top.  Everyone enjoyed these cheeseburgers, even my picky 4 year old. 

All that being said, I will make some changes next time I cook this.  One change I will make will be that I will make it into a loaf and bake it in the oven.  Hopefully that will make it easier for me, they were quite sticky and it took awhile to cook.  All in all this will be a recipe that I will cook again.


 

March monthy menu

March 2014
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
DS-Deaf Smith Country Cookbook NA5ing-Nava Atlas-The 5 Ingredient Gourmet	AWF-American Wholefoods Cuisine MWL- More With Less Cookbook					1 b-biscuits w/gravy l-leftovers d-potato soup (pg 55 DS) Make Bread
2 b-breakfast burritos l-sandwich/leftovers d-Rice Cheeseburgers, french fries, southwest pasta delight (pg 197 AWC, pg 65 NA5ing)	3 b-Cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-Fried egg sandwich d-pasta w/sauce Make Bread	4 b-pioneer porridge l-PB&J sandwich d-leftovers Make refried beans in the crockpot	5 b-toast w/jelly l-sandwich d-sloppy beans w/bread, oven fries, roasted veggies (pg 103 DS) Make Bread	6 b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-leftovers d-Arroz Con Queso, refried beans, spanish rice (pg 189 AWF)	7 Spring Break b-lemon muffin loaf l-PB&J sandwich d-baked potato, sour cream, salad	8 b-fried egg sandwich l-leftovers d- Vegetable soup Make bread
9 b-pancakes l-sandwich/leftovers d-Salmon patties, green beans, mashed potatoes, barley w/mushroom (pg 164 DS)	10 b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-egg salad sandiwich d-pasta w/sauce Make Bread	11 b-grits l-PB&J sandwich d-leftovers	12 b-toast w/jelly l-sandwich d- Baked beans, rice salad (pg103 DS) Make Bread	13 b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-leftovers d-Mexican Beans & pasta bake, corn (pg 185 AWF)	14 b-Cinnamon Loaf l-PB&J sandwich d-baked potato, sour cream, salad	15 b-grits w/bacon l-leftovers d-chicken noodle Make Bread
16 b-breakfast burritos l-sandwich/leftovers d-Cajun Delight, corn, salad (pg 165 DS)	17 St. Patrick's Day b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-Fried egg sandwich d-pasta w/sauce Make Bread	18 b-pioneer porridge l-PB&J sandwich d-leftovers Make refried beans in the crockpot	19 b-toast w/jelly l-sandwich d-Hoppin' John (pg 178 AWF) Make Bread	20 b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-leftovers d-Baked Chili Rellenos, refried beans, spanish rice (pg 178 DS)	21 b-biscuits l-PB&J sandwich d-baked potato, sour cream, salad	22 b-Fried egg sandwich l-leftovers d-Curried lentil & spinach soup (pg 26 NA5ing) Make Bread
23 b-pancakes l-sandwich/leftovers d-chicken curry with rice	24 b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-egg salad sandwich d-pasta w/sauce Make Bread	25 b-grits l-PB&J sandwich d-leftovers	26 b-toast w/jelly l-sandwich d-Sloppy Beans w/bread, oven fries, roasted veggies (pg 103 DS) Make Bread	27 b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-leftovers d- tacos, refried beans, rice	28 b-fried egg sandwich l-PB&J sandwich d-baked potato, sour cream, salad	29 b-biscuits w/gravy l-leftovers d-Chicken & Dumpling Make Bread
30 b-breakfast burritos l-sandwich/leftovers d-chicken curry w/ rice	31 b-cereal w/milk, cream of wheat l-Fried egg sandwich d-pasta w/sauce Make Bread

Feb. update on goals

Our 2014 goals:  (I know this is a lot, but I am trying to accomplish a lot this year.)

Personal Goals

1. Get active and lose weight.  Fail.  Exercised only 3 times this month.
2. Eat salads at least 3 times a week.  Fail.  Ate salads at least once a week.
3. Have a total of 200 no spend days (no shopping, food not included).  Total of Jan. & Feb. 41 days.  I think that this is good.
4. Read 50 books.  Read 26 books in Jan. & Feb.
5. Make everyone at least 1 homemade gift for Christmas.  Didn't make any, but got some ideas and patterns.
6. Make at least $100 selling items.  None.

  Garden Goals

1. To produce 1000 lbs of food this year.  None, but the chickens finally started laying.  Got 133 eggs in Feb.
2. Make 4 garden beds.  1 bed is 3/4 completed.

Family Goals

1. Twice a month do something special with the kids.  Fail for the month of Feb.
2.  Meet with the kids monthly to discuss goals, concerns, and ideas.  Started this in Feb.  Met with kids.  This seems to be working really good so far.
3. Have kids fill out info sheet. Met with each of the kids.  They enjoyed filling these out, it will be good to see how they change over the next couple of years.

Homesteading Goals

1. To aquire rabbits.  No, but have been doing research on hutches.
2. To bred the rabbits two times.  Nope, don't have rabbits yet.
3.  Build storm/root cellar.  No progress.
4. Mark property.  No, but found the property lines.
5. Build outdoor shower.  No progress.
6. Build solar oven.  No progress.
7. Build compost bin.  No.

Food Preservation

1. Put up a total of 50 jars of food.  No.
2. Put up a total of 25 lbs of dehydrated food.  No.