We've finally found it! Months of searching, who knows how many hundreds of ads looked at, various areas researched and debated, and several houses actually visited to and walked over, finally over. It's not exactly what we were hoping for when we started out, but this will still fit our needs without placing too many changes.
The actual land is about seven and a half acres, mostly wooded, with a stream running the length of the land. The woods are primarily hardwood, fairly typical for our area, with some pine mixed in, and of course is located in the mountains. The mountains, we realized on a trip to Kentucky, were really important to us, both of us just felt...safer in them. Fresh water was very important, granted the house came with a well but should the power go out there would be no way to get water out. With a stream on hand there will be water always available, now just to get a Big Berkey gravity filter.
That leads into the other aspect of getting a 'stead, all of a sudden there is a massive list of things to do! The house itself will take some work, it was a foreclosure, so of course there are no appliances with it, and the previous residents took the water heater with them. In some ways I kind of consider that to be a benefit, as I'm going to take the opportunity to install a propane tank, propane tankless water heater, and a propane stove. One thing that should be pointed out, those new en vogue electric stoves with the glass tops, while pretty, are actually very limited in their abilities. Those electric stoves cannot support a steam juicer or a canner on them and the exposed electric coil stoves waste energy by radiating the heat everywhere.
We are trying to work out our goals for this year, which seem to more revolve around trying to raise rabbits, chickens, and perhaps ducks. We would like to start two to three compost piles, and try to start building up the soil with a garden. I don't hold terribly much hope as it seems the land wasn't well taken care of by the previous owners so it will take a lot of work I think to get everything working well, but it will be worth it in the end.
Lots to do...hopefully it will spur me to post more often and to talk about what we are going through to put this together. Here's to new beginnings and a change of winds!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Updates
Well, I think at the least it can be said that I'm not that great at continuous updates, oh well :). Life, as always, has just been busy this time between learning how to can [water bath and pressure], steam juicing, and the constant search for our own slice of land. Unfortunately for me, but I guess fortunately for the blog I've come down with a pretty nasty cold so gives me time to put up an update. I will tell you what, having spent the last few months learning to can and everything else gives you a whole different perspective on the time that people like the Northern Farmer and his wife put into their blogs.
The biggest news is we think we've found a place that will work for us as a future homestead. It's only a little over seven and a half acres but it'll do. One of the big selling points is that one border is a creek that's strong enough to run all year round without freezing or drying up. Most of the land is still wooded and in dire need of being managed, but I think that's a major part of the reason why we'll be able to get it at the price we bid for it. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow the results of the bid, and if so I'll try to get back on here and put in an actual full description of the place. :)
So we've spent the last couple of months learning to can, first with the water bath canner and more recently with a pressure canner. With the water bath canner, it's fairly self explanatory and very easy to use as well as time consuming. Fortunately for the two of us, it wasn't our first rodeo with water bath canners, DF's grandmother still cans and my mother used to can when I was young. It is a fairly exciting thing to see foods that you've made put up and aside in their jars, just waiting for whenever you desire to eat them. One of the first recipes we did was one that's been passed down in my moms family for a couple of generations, a variation on the ice pickles recipe in the Ball Blue Book [highly recommend if you wish to can] affectionately known in the family as "Aunt Judy's pickles". We ended up making three batches of them, and next year will have to make more than that as they are quite a hit with DF and I have requests to bring up a jar or two when we come to visit for Christmas. I'll post the recipe at the end of this post. Remember to always adjust times for altitude!
Pressure canning has been...interesting. I'll admit that it took us a long time before either of us was willing to try it, just concerns in regards to a high pressure item on the stove. Following the directions, it really isn't as bad as it seems, and in many ways we've found we prefer it to the water bath canner, if not just for using less water. Ours is an All American canner, which we chose because we didn't want to deal with replacing gaskets, instead this canner seals metal on metal. It's loud, but very effective, and we now have a stockpile of different broths, as well as some soups and baked beans. Be sure to check your altitude so you can use the correct pressure!
If you're going to go this route, do yourself a favor, get a steam juicer! Wow are they ever handy and sooooo easy to use! We picked up ours in August and have made grape juice, apple juice, peach juice, plan to make a cranberry apple juice, and have used the pulp left behind to make jams and butters. It's so easy...fill the bottom with water, assemble, add items to be juiced and let the juicer do all the work. Considering that a lot of juices on store shelves these days are made with high fructose corn syrup, or basically high amounts of sugar, using the steam juicer can be a lot healthier for a person. Know whats in your food...control what goes in your body.
So I've kinda ranted, I blame the cold :) but I hope you enjoyed the post and found some things a bit helpful with it. Maybe, with any luck, I'll actually post on a more regular basis, but for now, the promised recipe:
The biggest news is we think we've found a place that will work for us as a future homestead. It's only a little over seven and a half acres but it'll do. One of the big selling points is that one border is a creek that's strong enough to run all year round without freezing or drying up. Most of the land is still wooded and in dire need of being managed, but I think that's a major part of the reason why we'll be able to get it at the price we bid for it. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow the results of the bid, and if so I'll try to get back on here and put in an actual full description of the place. :)
So we've spent the last couple of months learning to can, first with the water bath canner and more recently with a pressure canner. With the water bath canner, it's fairly self explanatory and very easy to use as well as time consuming. Fortunately for the two of us, it wasn't our first rodeo with water bath canners, DF's grandmother still cans and my mother used to can when I was young. It is a fairly exciting thing to see foods that you've made put up and aside in their jars, just waiting for whenever you desire to eat them. One of the first recipes we did was one that's been passed down in my moms family for a couple of generations, a variation on the ice pickles recipe in the Ball Blue Book [highly recommend if you wish to can] affectionately known in the family as "Aunt Judy's pickles". We ended up making three batches of them, and next year will have to make more than that as they are quite a hit with DF and I have requests to bring up a jar or two when we come to visit for Christmas. I'll post the recipe at the end of this post. Remember to always adjust times for altitude!
Pressure canning has been...interesting. I'll admit that it took us a long time before either of us was willing to try it, just concerns in regards to a high pressure item on the stove. Following the directions, it really isn't as bad as it seems, and in many ways we've found we prefer it to the water bath canner, if not just for using less water. Ours is an All American canner, which we chose because we didn't want to deal with replacing gaskets, instead this canner seals metal on metal. It's loud, but very effective, and we now have a stockpile of different broths, as well as some soups and baked beans. Be sure to check your altitude so you can use the correct pressure!
If you're going to go this route, do yourself a favor, get a steam juicer! Wow are they ever handy and sooooo easy to use! We picked up ours in August and have made grape juice, apple juice, peach juice, plan to make a cranberry apple juice, and have used the pulp left behind to make jams and butters. It's so easy...fill the bottom with water, assemble, add items to be juiced and let the juicer do all the work. Considering that a lot of juices on store shelves these days are made with high fructose corn syrup, or basically high amounts of sugar, using the steam juicer can be a lot healthier for a person. Know whats in your food...control what goes in your body.
So I've kinda ranted, I blame the cold :) but I hope you enjoyed the post and found some things a bit helpful with it. Maybe, with any luck, I'll actually post on a more regular basis, but for now, the promised recipe:
4 quarts of sliced cucumbers
8 small or 2-3 larger sliced onions
2 green peppers chopped
Mix the above with 1/2 cup of non-iodized salt.
Add a quart of cracked ice. Let sit for 3 hours.
Drain the water off after 3 hours.
Syrup:
5 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon celery seed
3 cups vinegar
2 cups water
Heat syrup almost to boiling
Add drained pickles/onions/peppers and bring to a boil.
Pack & seal
10 minutes in hot water bath
Makes approximately eight pints.
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