Over at Homestead Revival Amy is hosting a book give away. It is a book about the home dairy titled "Home Dairy" by Ashley English This would be a great book for me because I have decided to go ahead and purchase a family milk cow. However, I am a bit intimidated as to how to deal with all the wonderful milk she will give us and at the same time I am excited to learn how to make our own butter, cream, buttermilk, cheese, icecream ect. All without growth hormones and antibiotics or feed that is laced with all kinds of chemicals that go into the milk. Iv been reading up on this and its enough to make you want to pour the jug of store bought milk down the drain!

Homestead Revival: Give Away: Home Dairy!

Homestead Revival: Give Away: Home Dairy!: "I'm so excited! I get to offer another Ashley English book for a give-away... Home Dairy! The timing of this couldn't be better for me..."

A winter project finished!!!

This is the book shelves and drawers we had built in for the office. It now functions beautifully for all Portia's books and things. The drawers a deep as you can see and give Portia plenty of storage.

When the girls came to live with us almost 6 years ago Dewayne and I were empty nesters.

We had this great big house all to ourselves. At that time we had two extra bedrooms and being self employed we turned one of the bedrooms into an office.

Having no way of knowing what was down the road for us we even had the closet in the bedroom taken out and had a cabinet company come and build in book shelves and file drawers. It worked out great for several years.......

After 5 years of sharing a bedroom though Portia, almost 11 now really wanted her own bedroom. The problem was that now we needed to move the office and turn that room back into a bedroom....That took some time, we moved the office down to the basement but we first had to be able to afford to finish the basement......hence almost 6 years later....Once we were able to move the office down stairs we had a new challenge though, NO CLOSET!!!.......What to do? We didn't want to tear out the bookshelves and drawers we spent so much money on so we left them and decided to get a wardrobe closet for Portia......

At first I was going to buy a new armior (spell?).....but I didn't have the money to go buy a new one so I looked on line for a used one and this is what I found.....It was a tv cabinet and it was all beat up. I got it for $150.00 ( a new one would have been $1,000 or more) then Dewayne took the shelves out of it and put in a clothing bar. I painted it and distressed it and this is how it turned out..........I am very happy with it and so is Portia......It works great for a closet plus it makes for a nice piece of furniture for her room. Also the book shelve and drawers work out very well for her too....she has tons of space!!! Best of all, she has her own room. If she could only get Paris to sleep in her own bed now.

This is what it looked like when we brought it home

This is what it looks like now after I painted it I used a palm sander to make it look distressed

lots of space for her shoes, now if she would get them from the laundry room and put them in the cabinet

plenty of room for hanging her clothes

Yesterday we went to Salt Lake City (about an hours drive) to go to church with my mom and dad. We love going to their church, pastor Eric is funny and down to earth but very strong in God's word. The worship team is wonderful, very much like Gateway worship........love it!!! After church we go over to their house to visit and have lunch and we usually bring something to share.

I had asked my mother on the phone the other day to go to the thrift store if she got a chance and look for me some more canning jars. With my plans to expand the garden this year I will be putting up a lot more of our food and could use some more jars..........well to my surprise when we walked into the house this is what she had found at the thrift store for me, for $8.00!!!!!!! Needless to say I was very excited! Thanks mom! I am so blessed to still have my mother in my life.

I was thrilled that the Ball Blue Book for canning was still in the box in fact, other than some water damage to the book the whol set is like new. I'm sure the book will come in handy, it has a lot of great information and how to's on canning and preserving food, it tells how to use the water bath canner for high acid foods like tomatoes and fruits (I also have a steam canner) and how to can in a pressure cooker (on my list of items to purchase this year) for low acid foods like green beans and even how to use a food dehydrator (also on my list). It also has tons of great recipies.

Jersey Cow

I want one!!! Iv been working on hubby for a couple of years now and I'm wearin him down :o) I love the Jersey Cow, they are so beautiful and gentle.... They give lots of milk for drinking and cheese and butter. Raw milk is really good for you and you can feed some of the extra milk to the chickens, they love it and its high in calcium and protein that the chickens need and my chickens give me lots of eggs.......Its a win win don't you think? Now, I just hope I know what I'm getting myself into.......:o)

Proverbs 28:19

Cyn, this one is for you! I can soooo relate!!!

One of these things is not like the other.......

last summers garden

March 2011........not quite time to plant yet I guess! :o(

Proverbs 28:19 (New American Standard)

He who tills his land will have plenty of food; But he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty.

Proverbs 28:19 (The Message)

Work your garden - you'll end up with plenty of food; play and party - you'll end up with an empty plate. LOL

I love The Message translation!! ......I have a parallel bible with The New King James version on one side and The Message on the other side. The Message version cracks me up some times but it definitely sheds a different light on the same bible passage.

I am so ready to get going on my garden , Iv been looking at seed books and making plans as to what to plant. Also making plans to tear out some of the oak brush and plant some raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. I'm really looking forward to this because these will come back every year. We will have berries coming out our ears!

I also found a bush type of cherry tree that will grow in our cold climate ( Gurney's.com) :o).....I was excited about that because we can't grow fruit trees here like apples, peaches, pears ect. Not at this altitude.

Only problem is it is still winter and I won't be able to get my garden in until the end of May.

I am looking into ways to extend our growing season though.

THINK SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE