How to make Bath Salts

 

 

 

Soak your stress away with this easy to make Salt Soak.

 

Simply put your favorite essential oil with some sea salt and wam-bam....You're done!!

Sea Salt is very very affordable, It's usually priced somewhere around a dollar. You could also do it with Epsom salt.

 

I chose to make Lavender-Almond and Citrus-Almond this time. In case you can't tell-I pretty much think almond goes with everything!  It's working for me though because everything I make smells wonderful!!

 

 

To mix the essential oil and/or optional food coloring (a natural or organic dye is preferred) Just cut a piece of a paper towel and drop your oil and coloring on it. I used 2 separate paper towel pieces. Don't make them crazy wet or they will dissolve the salt. And mix it up with a butter knife. I also put the lid on and shook it a little.

 

Next, Put it in a pretty jar and you are done!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making sauerkraut

I loved learning how to make sauerkraut this past year and  I was surprised by how easy (and inexpensive) it was to make. I was especially proud of our New Years' pork and sauerkraut meal this year. Our roast was from our own backyard pig and it was perfeclyt paired with our home fermented kraut. If you're looking for a simple and rewarding project, I would recommend you try this recipe. 

Here's how I did it.

 

You will need:

 

cabbages

kosher or pickling salt

a large container

a plate

and a weight (I used a gallon jar filled with water, but many people use a big Rock) 

 

 

*Two important things to remember when making this are to never use aluminum utensils, and that using very clean utensils is necessary for a healthy brew...so clean your container and utensils before beginning.

 

To make it:

 

1. Wash cabbages and remove the outer leaves. Shred finely and discard the cores.(You can use a food processor or shred it by hand, like I did)

 

(I cannot figure out how to rotate this picture...grrr!)



 

2. Mix 4 Tbls. salt with 5 pounds of shredded cabbage and put in your clean crock. Stir and smash this down with clean hands until juices (the salt pulls it from the cabbage) covers the layer of cabbage.

 



 

3. Repeat until all of your cabbage is gone, using the same salt to cabbage ratio, and keep layering it and smashing it in your crock. Smash until brine covers the cabbage. If you cannot seem to smash it until the liquid covers the cabbage you can make some extra brine to pour in. To do this, just put 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of kosher salt into 1 quart of boiling water. Dissolve the salt in the water and cool brine to room temperature. Add brine to cover cabbage.

 

4. Put the plate in the crock, on top of cabbage, and place your weight on the plate to keep the cabbage under the brine.

 

5. Cover the crock with plastic wrap and then place a heavy towel over the top. (You want to keep any bugs out)

 

6. Place the crock in an area where the temperature will not go above 75 degrees or below 60. Allow it to ferment for 4-6 weeks until it tastes the way you like it. The longer you let it sit the more "sour" it will get. (The higher the temp. the faster it will ferment.)

I let mine go for 6 weeks at about 70 degrees and it was delicious.

Also- It can get some mold on the top of the brine. As long as it's not green or black- this is okay. Just remove it before taking out the kraut. I have talked to many people who have been making it for years and a lot of them say that they scrape the mold off once a week for 6 weeks. Some say they just remove it when it's done fermenting. I was worried about mine the first time I made it. But then I ate it and didn't die...so now I trust what everyone had told me.

 

7. Next-taste it. If it's good then remove it from the crock. Eat it raw for all the fermented benefits or Can it to enjoy it later in the year. (If you want to keep it raw I've read that it will keep in the fridge for about two months.)

 

I don't love it raw because I feel like it has a musty taste but I try to eat some anyway...since it's good for me and all. I canned the majority of mine.

 

If you want to can it use this timetable:

 

Hot Pack: Pint Jars-10 minutes, Quart jars-15 minutes
Raw Pack: Pint jars-20 minutes, Quart jars-25 minutes

 

 

 



 

And if you want to see another sweet little thing that was brewing in my crock....

 

Here's my little one playing peek-a-boo.

 

Where's Baby Josie?? Where could she be??

 

Peek-a-boo!!!  There she is!!

 

 I don't know what I enjoyed more about this antique crock...Fermenting the kraut or entertaining my  toddler for an entire afternoon?! Both uses were wonderful!!

 

If you make your sauerkraut a different way, I'd love to hear about it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surprise! It's a Grain Mill!!

I'm so excited to share this news with the world....

I officially grind my own grains!! I mill my own Flour!! I make by bread from "scratch"!! I can finally say that I know what fresh flour smells like!!! And I could not be more enthusiastic about this new venture!!

 Okay, I'll try to keep my giddiness under control so I can write this post.

My love of freshly baked bread all started when we bought our little corner of the world to begin our homesteading. The first thing I knew that I needed to learn, to be a true producer instead of consumer, was making our own bread. I had never before even considered making this part of my routine. I didn't even know what exactly yeast was or how it worked...But I wanted to learn.

I started out learning how to make bread without a bread machine. I figured that this would give me a better understanding of the whole process, and it did. It was so rewarding to send a warm loaf of freshly baked bread over to the neighbors house for the first time. Especially with a batch of freshly made butter, which is what I did. It was amazing-Learning how to make bread and wanting to do it so often that we had more than enough to share!

After doing it that way for a few weeks, my sister offered me a bread maker and I figured I'd give it a go. The bread however was not up to my expectations. It made a tall square loaf with a hole up the middle! What?! That's not what homemade bread is supposed to look like at all! So I took the advice of a friend and starting doing it half in the machine and half in the oven. It works beautifully and makes it more practical for me to keep a fresh loaf on hand. I'll give you guys my recipes for that in one of my upcoming posts. For now I have to get back to the topic at hand...My new grain mill!!!

I was totally surprised by my husband this Christmas when he let me know that he was buying me a present this time whether I approved it in the budget or not...it was happening and I wasn't aloud to complain. This is especially sweet since my husband usually doesn't do gifts. Back rubs are kind of his thing on my special days and I have never found reason to complain about that..I love them! But this Christmas he just wasn't sticking to the usual arrangement and he told me very matter of fact-ly that there was nothing I could do about it. I was excited and a little bit puzzled at what it could be. I don't ask for much and certainly never anything too expensive. After he ordered it (at my sisters house, on her account and paid her by check...sneaky, eh?) I'd told him I needed the amount so that I could balance the checkbook. When he told me the amount, I almost died!  What in the world could he be getting me that costs so much??

Well you guessed it. It was a grain mill!!!!! But not just any grain mill- It was a Kitchenaid Mixer with a grain mill attachment. 

Oh.My.Gosh.

A Kitchenaid and a grain mill...I know, I know- It's a little bit more exciting than a back rub, I'll give him that credit, but already knows that. Actually, this is how the rest of our week played out:

Me: "Justin, you forgot to take out the trash again!!"
Justin: "Hun...I got you a grain mill!"

See? he's a pretty smart guy. It worked for like a week...and then I remembered that I had carried, delivered and nursed all 3 of his babies so clearly I win the "who did what for whom" game! Not that the mill gift isn't high up on the awesome list. It just takes second place to the miracle of birth.

Bet you didn't think you'd find that in a flour post...hah!

Getting back to the point here-
I couldn't believe that this wonderful man had not only gotten me this gift, but that he had remembered me commenting on a blog post over a year ago about grinding flour. I had NEVER said to him that I wanted a Kitchenaid...but man, did I ever!!

 

 Here are some pictures I snapped in action last evening as I was grinding my wheat berries.

 

 

My beautiful wheat.

My grain mill

 

My grain mill-in action

 

And my fresh wheat flour.

 

I would recommend anyone who already makes homemade bread to seriously look into a mill. The flour is really a lot cheaper for me to grind myself than to buy it packaged, so I figure eventually the cost will even out.(but that's just my way of making the cost "feel" better) Plus the health benefits are priceless.

 

 I had read a lot recently about the benefits of eating fresh flour and that even the healthiest grocery store flours need to have preservatives added as flour does go rancid. To read more about that and wheat in general, read this: http://thewholetruth.org/Health_Wheat_FAQ.asp

 

I buy my wheat berries at a local Mennonite store and keep them in a food grade bucket so I'm not having to run a few times a week to get more, However I don't buy so much that I can't use it within a short period of time. You'll have to see what works best for you.

 

Do any of you mill your own flour? What kind of grains do you use? I'm just learning myself so I'd be interested in hearing any combinations of grains that work well for you. I love learning from those who are experienced!!

 

Have a good day everyone and Happy Baking!!

 

 

The Road Less Traveled...To the Raw Milk Farm!

(The funny thing is this started out as a crock pot yogurt post. It evolved to a milk post. Yogurt recipe coming soon)


One of the skills you just have to have as a homesteader is to be able to make your own dairy products out of milk. If you're really lucky, like I am you will be able to make things out of local raw milk. (This is where the post veered off the yogurt topic..just sayin')

I'm so fortunate to be in a state where raw milk is legal and in a community where it's easy to find. For cheap! I read so many other blogs that have talked about raw milk and all of the troubles they go through to find or to be able to "purchase" it. I've met some women online that travel 2 to 3 hours a week and pay $10 or $12 for a gallon!  It really made me think about how I buy my milk. Again, I say I'm fortunate.. Just to make some of you extremely jealous, I'll tell you my milk acquiring story!

The farm that I buy from is about 8 minutes away. It's the most beautiful drive in the world and I always find myself especially aware and filled with gratitude while I travel the back roads to get there.

Let me take you there with me for a minute:

 I start by passing through my little small town and crossing onto a winding back road. This road takes me through a vineyard...a beautiful vineyard that hosts beautiful concerts every Saturday night all summer long. A vineyard that has rows of grapes that seem never ending with the backdrop  of  rolling hills and far off tree lines. After the vineyard, I make a left. This road takes me directly along a beautiful stream that reminds me of all of the times I would go fishing there with my dad as a little girl. On a warm day with the windows down, you can hear the sound of the water babbling along as you drive by. After coming to a stop at the end of that road I make a right and proceed to pass nothing but farms and distant trees. This is the part I especially love in fall before they harvest the corn from the fields. It's just wide open pastures and crops that no matter what the weather may be it always make the sky seem to burst with colors. After a sharp wind in the road I turn into the farm and park by a humble little yellow shed with an open sign on the door and an "honor box" and notepad inside. The system is..You drop of your empty gallon jars and pick up your filled ones. Then you put your money in the box, writing what you've purchased so the farmer can keep track of the sales. If you don't have the exact change? Well that's okay just pay next time! This is a Farmer that still trusts his patrons. AMAZING! This is truly the way I want to do my business. This is who I want to give my money to!! I love everything about this dairy farm and I love the 8 minute drive there to reflect on the beautiful simplicities of nature that are abundant all around me. And most of all.....I love the milk!

I wish I had pictures of this beautiful path less traveled to share with you. Unfortunately it's dark outside as I type this or I would be taking that spirit lifting drive right now, camera in hand.

I will add some photos to this post the next time I fill my jars, in the meantime here is a photo of my  milk jar....which in my opinion is pretty all by itself!

 

 

And the real kicker is it's only $2.50 a gallon!!

 

Where do you all get your raw milk? How much do you pay?

(If you say from your own cow then I will be the jealous one!)

Milling lumber and my husbands love of wood

My husband LOVES wood!

I mean he really, really loves it, or anything at all that has to do with a tree really. He carries tree books in his jacket pocket and constantly stops to ask our girls if they can "name that tree."

His favorite hobby is splitting wood....by hand! Even though our family has a wood splitter, he likes the rugged workout of swinging the ax. But that's okay because I kinda like watching him swing the ax! Since this is his favorite thing to do, it's only natural that he would eventually get in to the craft of woodworking. He's just learning the basics and has made some pretty cool things so far. Mostly he's making decorative items for me to display around the house. His eventual dream is to turn one of our sheds into a woodworking shop so he can be a pro carpenter. (The same way I dream of having a dairy pasture and living off grid) but we realize that these things we must learn one step at a time.

Right now he's learning how to mill and dry lumber.

He has been collecting tree trunks from my grandfathers' farm and stashing them away for the day when a friend would bring over his portable saw mill....

And finally the day had come, my husband was ready to learn how to mill his own lumber. 
Here's a picture of the lumberjacks at work...

 

It was amazing to watch this machine saw so perfectly through such big, heavy logs!

 

 

If you look closely at the last picture you can see that it's been cut every 2". Justin's planning on making us a table out of this English Walnut tree.

 

 

That's  Casey, the awesome guy who owns the mill.

 

 

This is a picture of the whole setup from a distance.

 

 

That's my husband Justin!

 

 

 

 

And this is just some of the wood we had milled that day! The cost for all of this wood was less than $200- Far less than what even a portion of this lumber would have costs at the store. And it only costs us that because we wanted to give the guys a little something for the time.

 

Now that you understand my husbands love of wood, you can look forward to many more posts about anything "trees".. and even some pictures of his milled wood projects. He makes beautiful cutting boards from some of the English Walnut, But that's a whole other post entirely!

 

What's your favorite homesteading hobby?  I'd love to hear about it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Story

Hello!

 

I'm Georgia and my husband's name is Justin. We have three beautiful daughters that we are trying to teach to live humble, simple and grateful lives.

(A picture from when our youngest was born)

 

We did not always have this specific goal in life. Just last year we decided that we were going to sell our very big, very nice home. A home with 5 bedrooms and 5 bathroom and sat on 2.5 acres. A home with an in-ground pool....

 

                                  

 

(our old living room)



 

 

 .....So we could buy a 3.5 acre property with spectacular river views within walking distance of all of my family and friends. The appeal of this property was easy to see...the less appealing aspect of it was that instead of a house, in the center of the property...was a trailer!  Now I'm not judgemental about trailer living but we knew it was going to be a very big adjustment for us to go from 5000 sq. feet (literally our kids would ride their Barbie jeep through the old house) to a small trailer where we would have a strict "no running inside" rule. Needless to say...within 24 hours the trailer property was ours and the big house was going on the market.! I can honestly say that we have never regretted taking such a huge leap of faith and the rewards have been endless. Plus the trailer's pretty cool. It was pretty and new and super clean. Now go ahead and check out the new view.....

 

 

 (what we see out our sliding glass door)

 

When we moved here we did not even know what "homesteading" meant. We just knew that we were getting chickens and going to plant some tomatoes. We also assumed that we would have had a house built by now. (wrong!) Right after we moved here I remember having an old friend stop over one morning (Hey Katieann!!) and she listened to all of the dreams I had for our new property and said that her and her family were  "homesteading" too. Imagine that...There was a word for what I had been dreaming of!! I could hardly wait to start researching!! Within minutes of googling the word she had taught me, I had my life's mission spelled out in front of me....

....Produce more, consume less, be humble, be grateful, give back to our community, have a stellar garden and raise some animals with love and humanity. It was also clear that I wanted to raise my daughters to work hard, live on less, eat healthier and know where healthy food comes from.  We've been happily homesteading ever since!

 

 

So that's our story! well, that's the very short version of our story and  how we ended becoming homesteaders. I have so many things to fill you in on that have happened here in the past year but will have to get to each thing one at a time.Until then...thanks for stopping by our little homestead!

The Neefe Family

Super easy sugar scrub

 One of the quickest things to make yourself is this vanilla brown sugar body scrub. I made it as part of my  Christmas present baskets this year. I wanted it to have a warm and cozy winter smell so I chose to use brown sugar and vanilla to scent it. You can whip up a batch of this and clean up your kitchen in less than 5 minutes so I figured it was a great recipe to start my blog with. I keep a mason jar on the side of my tub and it leaves my skin feeling luxuriously moisturized. Here is the recipe:

 

 

 

1 cup brown sugar

 

1 cup white sugar

 

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

 

and a few teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Stir all ingredients in a bowl until combine. (If it's too runny just add more sugar. If it's too dry add more oil) Put in a pretty glass jar and you're done. Here is a photo of mine. I chose to put it in a wide mouth jelly jar for my gifts and tied some jute around a piece of brown paper bag to make it match my rustic gift baskets.

 

 

 

And here is a picture of one of my gift baskets since I know you're all just dying to see them!

 

 

 

 

 

What homemade gifts did you give for Christmas this year?

 

 

 





So I'm going to be a blogger

I feel the need to have a space where I can share all of my homesteading adventures with those of you who'd like to read about them. Everything from learning how to prepare whole food meals for my husband and our three daughters to butchering pigs, inoculating mushrooms spores or sharing my all natural home product recipes that I've tried and loved. We've been on a path towards simple living for the last year and half since we sold our 5,000 square foot house (along with nearly all of our belongings) to create a home life where we are producing more then we are consuming. We bought 3.5 acres of land overlooking the beautiful Susquehanna River in Lancaster County Pa and have been enjoying the simple things in life ever since. I've been so humbled by the things I've learned since taking this leap of faith and so grateful for the friendships I've been lucky enough to have made.

This is my first time ever doing a blog and this is my first post so as you can imagine, I'm typing this particular post as quickly as possible. I promise there is more and better posts to come!!

Thanks for reading,
Georgia

And since I have to practice putting up pictures, I decided  to post one of our first two piglets. This is a picture of Piggly and Wiggly last year helping us to till the new garden. Aww...