I have been reading and researching a lot about tiny homes and being a minimalist. Let me just say that is definitely not me and my family as of right now. However, I do want to mention that I am trying to at least de-clutter my life.
Last weekend I was able to go through our huge storage closet and throw away 6 bags of garbage and create 5 bags of donations. Today we threw out three more bags out but that was only in the kitchen. I want to be able to clean out an entire closet and have it empty. I want to be able to downsize our stuff until it is just what we need and what is really important to us. Right now we have a lot of junk.
I am planning on cleaning out a bunch of our knick knacks and things we have not used since we moved to our current place (which has almost been two years). It is showing to be a lot of hard work but even M is wanting to help and downsize our belongs as well. It is always nice when you get your partner to help you and even goes along with what you want to accomplish.
Tomorrow we are going to go for a walk in nature first and then get to work straightening everything out and getting rid of the weight holding us back.
I wish everyone else luck who is going through the same thing. I would love to hear what you have been up to.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
My Goat Obsession
Let me start out saying that I used to hate goats. Abhorred them. I thought they were mean spirited and just out to cause little children pain. This was of course after seeing my younger sister get head butted in the stomach just for wanting to pet his once cute face. My whole family was scarred after that.
Then a few months back I started reading books about self-sustainability and homesteading because I wanted to be able to support myself if ever the need rose. Especially since I was also learning about the increasing dangers from the food products in the stores. Well in one of the books this woman went on and on about how wonderful her goats were and how she wondered how she lived without them. She had mini goats for her backyard in the suburbs. It was my first re-introduction to goats. The book peaked my interest beyond what I thought possible.
I kept reading. Finding tidbits of information in all sorts of sources. Mostly a small chapter here and there in the overall picture of starting a hobby farm. But about a week ago I finally got the courage up to go to the library and check out their shelves for books on goats and homesteading. I have read more about them and realize they are the perfect animal for me when I do get enough land to have a few. And that is the problem, you need a few. The goat of my childhood was all by him lonesome and I realize now that he was just grumpy and lonely and didn't know how to socialize. He was one of the only animals left on the farm and it was a cruel joke by the farmer to keep him all by his lonesome in a small pen. I realize now, that is why the goat was so mean. It was not his fault at all but his owner. The person who was suppose to take care of him and socialize with him and play with him constantly (since we was all alone.)
Anyways, I digress. Goats are lovable creatures with so many uses as I am finding out. They can give fiber for making yarn and fabric out of (cashmere and mohair anyone!), the females can give tons of milk to make healthy whole milk, butter, cheeses, skin creams, the list goes on and on. They can also be a great source of meat since it is so lean and still grass fed. But it isn't just what they can give us. They can eat just about anything growing out on the prairie or grass fields. Thistle, grass, weeds of all sorts, plants, woody plants, just about anything. Talk about cleaning up the place.
I am learning more and more everyday about barnyard animals and honestly I just see goats as a great addition to my family when the time comes.
Then a few months back I started reading books about self-sustainability and homesteading because I wanted to be able to support myself if ever the need rose. Especially since I was also learning about the increasing dangers from the food products in the stores. Well in one of the books this woman went on and on about how wonderful her goats were and how she wondered how she lived without them. She had mini goats for her backyard in the suburbs. It was my first re-introduction to goats. The book peaked my interest beyond what I thought possible.
I kept reading. Finding tidbits of information in all sorts of sources. Mostly a small chapter here and there in the overall picture of starting a hobby farm. But about a week ago I finally got the courage up to go to the library and check out their shelves for books on goats and homesteading. I have read more about them and realize they are the perfect animal for me when I do get enough land to have a few. And that is the problem, you need a few. The goat of my childhood was all by him lonesome and I realize now that he was just grumpy and lonely and didn't know how to socialize. He was one of the only animals left on the farm and it was a cruel joke by the farmer to keep him all by his lonesome in a small pen. I realize now, that is why the goat was so mean. It was not his fault at all but his owner. The person who was suppose to take care of him and socialize with him and play with him constantly (since we was all alone.)
Anyways, I digress. Goats are lovable creatures with so many uses as I am finding out. They can give fiber for making yarn and fabric out of (cashmere and mohair anyone!), the females can give tons of milk to make healthy whole milk, butter, cheeses, skin creams, the list goes on and on. They can also be a great source of meat since it is so lean and still grass fed. But it isn't just what they can give us. They can eat just about anything growing out on the prairie or grass fields. Thistle, grass, weeds of all sorts, plants, woody plants, just about anything. Talk about cleaning up the place.
I am learning more and more everyday about barnyard animals and honestly I just see goats as a great addition to my family when the time comes.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Homesteading Dream
This week has been full of things pushing me towards fulfilling my homesteading dream.
First off, on Monday, I finally learned how to knit socks. This may not seem like a huge deal to many of you but to me it is HUGE! I have been knitting on and off since about the age of seven and the thought of knitting a sock terrified me. I was always afraid that it was going to be impossibly hard and I would get super frustrated and give up with out accomplishing anything. Well thankfully the life saver of modern times, aka YouTube, saved the day. I finally learned how to turn the heel and make the gusset (the triangle thing by the heel for those who don't know). And now I have completed my first pair of socks! Amazing I know. They need some improvements but I figured for my first pair they are pretty darn good. I am wearing them as I type.
The second thing that really has me on the homesteading bandwagon is making my own onion powder. Yup, I did it. Another thing I thought near impossible that I accomplished this week. It was super easy as well! I even got to use my mortar and pestle! Oven baked the onions until they were super crunchy (low heat over a few hours) and then pounded away at them with my stone. It was great fun and really made me think of doing this for the rest of my life. Now the only thing that could have made it better if I grew the onions but there is always room for improvement.
I continue to read up on homesteading . Put a ton of books on hold at the local library. Would love to own them all but we have to save all our pennies, nickels and dimes if we want to afford a homestead in Western Washington.
This was a great week for me and realizing my dreams. I can't wait until next week when I get to try something new.
Until next time!
First off, on Monday, I finally learned how to knit socks. This may not seem like a huge deal to many of you but to me it is HUGE! I have been knitting on and off since about the age of seven and the thought of knitting a sock terrified me. I was always afraid that it was going to be impossibly hard and I would get super frustrated and give up with out accomplishing anything. Well thankfully the life saver of modern times, aka YouTube, saved the day. I finally learned how to turn the heel and make the gusset (the triangle thing by the heel for those who don't know). And now I have completed my first pair of socks! Amazing I know. They need some improvements but I figured for my first pair they are pretty darn good. I am wearing them as I type.
The second thing that really has me on the homesteading bandwagon is making my own onion powder. Yup, I did it. Another thing I thought near impossible that I accomplished this week. It was super easy as well! I even got to use my mortar and pestle! Oven baked the onions until they were super crunchy (low heat over a few hours) and then pounded away at them with my stone. It was great fun and really made me think of doing this for the rest of my life. Now the only thing that could have made it better if I grew the onions but there is always room for improvement.
I continue to read up on homesteading . Put a ton of books on hold at the local library. Would love to own them all but we have to save all our pennies, nickels and dimes if we want to afford a homestead in Western Washington.
This was a great week for me and realizing my dreams. I can't wait until next week when I get to try something new.
Until next time!
Friday, January 25, 2013
Knitting Progress
I have done it again. I have become addicted to knitting. I go in these spurts where all I want to do is knit. It all started because I went to clean out my knitting corner (currently a huge pile of yarn, needles and projects half done or "phd" underneath an end table in my living room) and make it look at least presentable and usable again. Well of course it goes without saying that once I clean something out I usually play with half the things I find, aka knitting.
This past week I have worked on a panel of a stripped blanket. It is going to be blue and green. The two panels currently are seperate and I am actually using one as a shawl as I work on the other one.
(Insert picture)
Then I found an old ball of yarn I got about a year ago (yes that is old for me, I can't collect a stash no matter how hard I try). I am knitting squares found from a coaster pattern I found and plan on making that into a quilt or pillow or something like that. It is just too cute for me to just have it is as a coaster.
(Insert Picture)
Finally I wanted a quick project for me to do start to finish and found this adorable baby blanket pattern on the purl bee (via pinterest). It is a simple seed stitch blanket with very chunky yarn and a knitted border. I am changing it up by using three strands of heavy weight yarn by Homespun (you can get it at any craft store, especially Joann's) and following the same pattern.
It is a simple pattern of
CO 51. Seed stitch until all balls are used up (with some left over for a BO).
With the homespun I am using 6 balls of yarn since they are bigger than the local homemade skeins. After that is all done I am going to use a lime green color to make a crocheted border around it. The purl bee version as I mentioned had a knitted border but I thought it would be easier to crochet it than having to worry about picking up stitches and the like.
This is my progress so far.
(Insert picture)
Of course I am also always working on dishcloths. I can never have enough of them and they are simple projects to do while sitting in front of the TV or relaxing in bed.
What kind of projects have you been up to? I would love to hear about them.
This past week I have worked on a panel of a stripped blanket. It is going to be blue and green. The two panels currently are seperate and I am actually using one as a shawl as I work on the other one.
(Insert picture)
Then I found an old ball of yarn I got about a year ago (yes that is old for me, I can't collect a stash no matter how hard I try). I am knitting squares found from a coaster pattern I found and plan on making that into a quilt or pillow or something like that. It is just too cute for me to just have it is as a coaster.
(Insert Picture)
Finally I wanted a quick project for me to do start to finish and found this adorable baby blanket pattern on the purl bee (via pinterest). It is a simple seed stitch blanket with very chunky yarn and a knitted border. I am changing it up by using three strands of heavy weight yarn by Homespun (you can get it at any craft store, especially Joann's) and following the same pattern.
It is a simple pattern of
CO 51. Seed stitch until all balls are used up (with some left over for a BO).
With the homespun I am using 6 balls of yarn since they are bigger than the local homemade skeins. After that is all done I am going to use a lime green color to make a crocheted border around it. The purl bee version as I mentioned had a knitted border but I thought it would be easier to crochet it than having to worry about picking up stitches and the like.
This is my progress so far.
(Insert picture)
Of course I am also always working on dishcloths. I can never have enough of them and they are simple projects to do while sitting in front of the TV or relaxing in bed.
What kind of projects have you been up to? I would love to hear about them.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Adventures In Making Butter
For the holidays I got a gift card to William Sonoma. Well this past weekend M and I decided that we would go spend it on some things we need around the house. Okay in reality we didn't want to spend any money because we are trying to save it all and were going stir crazy so we went to William Sonoma (a store in which I love but just normally can't afford all the goodies in there).
So anyways, I went around that store like six times. M dragging behind me just saying pick something already. (Nothing like going around the same store 6 times to make you want to go back home and not care if you are stir crazy anymore, trust me.) I picked out some measuring cups we needed (the liquid measuring cups. I only have dry ones) and we still had a lot more on our card to use up. So I saw in the little homesteading section they had a butter making kit. I thought to myself that looks fun and put it on the register along with the measuring cups. Went to the store bought the other ingredients I needed and we headed on home.
Of course now I have psyched myself up for it. I am getting excited so the moment I get home I bust open the kit and follow the instructions. My patience just is not the best when I am really excited about something so the 30 minutes or so until the cream got to room temperature for me to start shaking away was nearly deadly.
15 minutes later of shaking vigorously. Let just say my arms ached for days. Then after I went to rinse off the butter in the ice water I realized I hadn't shook it long enough or waited long enough to let the cream warm up. So 15 minutes of one of the best arm work outs of my life and I didn't even get butter. Nope. It turned into a pile of liquid mess that ended up going down the garbage disposal.
I know the lessons now but geez. Making sure your whipping cream is very much at room temperature before you start shaking otherwise that 15 minutes will probably be closer to 30 minutes. I know I will try it again (after my arms recover) but it was an adventure to say the least. I am glad I tried it and even though I blew it I am excited to try it again.
Have you ever made butter? How did it turn out for you? I would love to find out.
So anyways, I went around that store like six times. M dragging behind me just saying pick something already. (Nothing like going around the same store 6 times to make you want to go back home and not care if you are stir crazy anymore, trust me.) I picked out some measuring cups we needed (the liquid measuring cups. I only have dry ones) and we still had a lot more on our card to use up. So I saw in the little homesteading section they had a butter making kit. I thought to myself that looks fun and put it on the register along with the measuring cups. Went to the store bought the other ingredients I needed and we headed on home.
Of course now I have psyched myself up for it. I am getting excited so the moment I get home I bust open the kit and follow the instructions. My patience just is not the best when I am really excited about something so the 30 minutes or so until the cream got to room temperature for me to start shaking away was nearly deadly.
15 minutes later of shaking vigorously. Let just say my arms ached for days. Then after I went to rinse off the butter in the ice water I realized I hadn't shook it long enough or waited long enough to let the cream warm up. So 15 minutes of one of the best arm work outs of my life and I didn't even get butter. Nope. It turned into a pile of liquid mess that ended up going down the garbage disposal.
I know the lessons now but geez. Making sure your whipping cream is very much at room temperature before you start shaking otherwise that 15 minutes will probably be closer to 30 minutes. I know I will try it again (after my arms recover) but it was an adventure to say the least. I am glad I tried it and even though I blew it I am excited to try it again.
Have you ever made butter? How did it turn out for you? I would love to find out.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
When Things Step Between You and Your Plans
So I am not the best at blogging. I will be the first to admit. I had the most perfect intentions of writing on this blog every week and it being my baby. As you can see that hasn't happened. Life has a way of stepping in and make even the most brilliant of plans fall through.
I have been trying still to make our apartment a home and save pennies to someday have a house to call our own. Then of course our bearded dragon needed emergency surgery and 800 some dollars later a lot of our hard work to save went down the drain in one very stressful evening. We are still saving little by little and making budgets and plans to save as much as we can. The new year for a new start.
I haven't been knitting as much as I would like but with the start of the new year I have a few new projects I am working on. Mostly blankets and dish cloths (can never have enough of either!) The blanket I am working on is a Yule time themed blanket of green and red. I am hoping it is warm and lush and finished before Easter rolls around. Then I will be in the mood for some spring time projects and cleaning house.
The organizing has taken a very steep decline because in Seattle area the sun doesn't really come out at all and by the time you get off of work to organize it is dark in almost every corner of our apartment (we rely on a lot of natural light most of the year in the majority of our apartment.) I have a plan made of down sizing our collection of items and trying to get some extra money by selling some books and things we do not need.
I have tried to re-boot the herb of the month club with a group of friends. It is a lot more work than I was imagining and I need to get into work on that more. It is a lot of fun while at the group meetings but the collecting all the information and planning meetings is definitely not easy. I am hoping it gets easier the more I do it and get comfortable with it.
In entirety life is hectic. You plan and plan but something always comes up that was outside of your planning. No matter how much you plan something somewhere will go wrong but the best you can do is plan for everything you can think of and smile through the problems and get them resolved. That is what we are still trying to do and what I will continue to do.
Until next time.
I have been trying still to make our apartment a home and save pennies to someday have a house to call our own. Then of course our bearded dragon needed emergency surgery and 800 some dollars later a lot of our hard work to save went down the drain in one very stressful evening. We are still saving little by little and making budgets and plans to save as much as we can. The new year for a new start.
I haven't been knitting as much as I would like but with the start of the new year I have a few new projects I am working on. Mostly blankets and dish cloths (can never have enough of either!) The blanket I am working on is a Yule time themed blanket of green and red. I am hoping it is warm and lush and finished before Easter rolls around. Then I will be in the mood for some spring time projects and cleaning house.
The organizing has taken a very steep decline because in Seattle area the sun doesn't really come out at all and by the time you get off of work to organize it is dark in almost every corner of our apartment (we rely on a lot of natural light most of the year in the majority of our apartment.) I have a plan made of down sizing our collection of items and trying to get some extra money by selling some books and things we do not need.
I have tried to re-boot the herb of the month club with a group of friends. It is a lot more work than I was imagining and I need to get into work on that more. It is a lot of fun while at the group meetings but the collecting all the information and planning meetings is definitely not easy. I am hoping it gets easier the more I do it and get comfortable with it.
In entirety life is hectic. You plan and plan but something always comes up that was outside of your planning. No matter how much you plan something somewhere will go wrong but the best you can do is plan for everything you can think of and smile through the problems and get them resolved. That is what we are still trying to do and what I will continue to do.
Until next time.
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