Wednesday's Wonderful Blog Neighbor

 Because I think I have the most awesome blog neighbors I wanted to share some with you. Each Wednesday I will post one of my blog neighbors and hope you will drop by their blog for a visit. You don't have to follow them or even leave a comment (though that would be nice). Just stop by and check them out. Who knows you might like them so much they become your neighbor too! 

This week (day late) I would love for you to visit Backwoods Mom . This Alaska mom has her hands full with her kids building a cabin while hubby works away from home. They are wanting to move off grid and are building the cabin themselves. She even does plumbing! Her children are pretty talented too. Her and her husband have fostered and adopted some of her crew. Scroll through the blog and see posts and pics of their cabin and other adventures. You will LOVE reading her blog and bet you will want to add her as one of your blog neighbors too!

Too Quiet

It is so quiet around the homestead. There was 12 of us for Thanksgiving weekend and the house was full of fun and laughter. Lots of games of UNO,lots of movies, lots of food, and lots and lots of talking. My son in law Joseph help me build another goat house, make wooden holders for the ornaments I made for the Craft Fair. He and Melody helped me rake the chicken pens and the grands helped me cover the roosting shelter openings with plastic to keep winter winds out. Plans were made for 3 family weekends here on the homestead next spring, summer, and winter. Had lots of teasing and joking going on around here. Not one person wanted to do any Black Friday shopping. We were content to be together.

This week has me hurrying to get all my craft projects finished before Saturday. There is a big craft fair at Tractor Supply. There will be over 20 vendors, sleigh rides, Santa stopping by, hot chocolate, bowls of chili so am hoping we will be really busy and sell lots of items.I also have craft projects for 5 people I need to finish up. Its a pay it forward project and I have some very special people I want to pay it forward to. Grandson Harvey is spending the week and is helping Pop Pop and I feed the animals. He is also having fun playing with them as well.

I will be going to the mountains for Christmas. I wasn't going to go this year but things have worked out where I can get away and I want to visit with my brothers while there. The girls and the grands have plans for me and I look forward to just enjoying the grands. This holiday season seems to be turning into a busy but fun one. It will also be a frugal one. Being our families are so large we do homemade, thrift store, yardsale, gift giving. It actually is a lot more fun trying to make or find the perfect gift and be the one that spent the least amount of money.

I was blessed with a half bushel of tomatoes last night and will be in the kitchen soon canning. They are from Florida but actually have a good taste to them. I get sorta spoiled eating fresh tomatoes from the garden but winter time will not turn down canning tomatoes.

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and your holiday season is filled with blessings!

Wednesday's Wonderful Blog Neighbor

I am blessed to have each of you for a blog neighbor. Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow and we all have so much to be thankful for I wanted to start early by saying I am thankful for you. When I started blogging in 2005 I never knew it would bring so many wonderful friends and blog neighbors. I have met some of you in person but even those I haven't yet I still consider dear friends. I am truly blessed to have you in my life. Wishing you a very blessed Thanksgiving and a wonderful, safe, holiday weekend. I am cooking all the Thanksgiving usual foods for my daughter Melody, her family, and Sissy, Jonathan, and Lily. It will be a loud, fun, crazy, holiday weekend here and I am going to enjoy every minute! The goats, chickens, turkey, geese, and ducks will all have pumpkin for treats tomorrow while the rabbits get carrots and the dogs get a nice big bone. Everyone and everything will have a full belly here on the homestead.... Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday's Wonderful Blog Neighbor

 Because I think I have the most awesome blog neighbors I wanted to share some with you. Each Wednesday I will post one of my blog neighbors and hope you will drop by their blog for a visit. You don't have to follow them or even leave a comment (though that would be nice). Just stop by and check them out. Who knows you might like them so much they become your neighbor too!

 Today I want to share Lisa's blog; RandL's Homespun Life  Lisa had breast cancer and shared her journey with us from diagnosis,treatments, surgery, more treatments all the while keeping her faith and upbeat attitude. Lisa loves to garden, cook, sew, and do crafts. Some days I feel a pity party coming on and all I have to do is stop by Lisa's. She always finds the rainbow in the midst of the rain. Hope you stop by and visit her as I think you will find a warm welcome and feel right at home. 

Monday's Musings

Why is it my hibiscus waited until November to bloom? It is loaded with buds and blossoms. Why are we having 73F degree weather in November? How do you guys with chickens work around the leaves you put in your chicken pens? Am I OCD when it comes to chicken pens? I don't want the chickens scratching in their own waste so I rake their pens each week and sprinkle food grade DE on the ground, give them fresh ash from the fire pit to roll in, as well as bleach their roosting poles. When I have the leaves on the ground in the pens they end up getting rained on and there is a wet mess of leaves and a very damp ground. Dampness is not good for chickens and can cause respiratory problems. So could a chicken person tell me how they put the raked leaves from their yards into the chicken pens and make it work?  Anyone else giving their animals pumpkins? The farmers market gave us 2 pallets of beautiful pumpkins. I am going to can some but as it is a natural wormer for animals I have been cutting up bite size pieces for the goats, cutting pumpkins in half and letting the chickens and ducks go crazy eating them. Each pen of chickens can finish off a half of a pumpkin down to the skin in just a couple of hours. It is fun watching them. The geese like to bite off pieces and dip them in water before eating. Rabbits don't care for them so they got carrots. Anyone else tired of all the post about Romney now that the election is over? Am so tired of reading and hearing how bad he is. People, he didn't win! He is no problem for you any longer. You should take that time to worry about our country and president. Bashing Romney will not help anything. Well that is what has been mulling around my mind today. Hope you have a blessed one!

Wednesday's Wonderful Blog Neighbor

 Because I think I have the most awesome blog neighbors I wanted to share some with you. Each Wednesday I will post one of my blog neighbors and hope you will drop by their blog for a visit. You don't have to follow them or even leave a comment (though that would be nice). Just stop by and check them out. Who knows you might like them so much they become your neighbor too!

Today's neighbor is Miki  from The Pink Wiggle She is a young lady that loves to knit, dance, take pictures, babysit, and enjoy every minute of every day. I enjoy her picture posts of the day and think you will enjoy them to. So pop over and be a nice blog neighbor by saying hi and checking out her blog.

America The Beautiful - Swagbucks TV

America The Beautiful - Swagbucks TV

Don't forget to vote. Don't forget to give thanks for living in a country where you have the freedom to vote. Whoever wins the election may we all join together and be proud of our beautiful country.

Ouch!

Did the monthly grocery shopping couple days ago and still smarting from the price stickers. I try to spend $150 each month though some months (especially during garden season) is less and a few months I might go over a few dollars. This month went WAY over. I spent $288 ! I knew I would go over this month being I only spent $98 last month but sure didn't think I would spend almost double. Needed to stock up on all the baking goods and this was the month to purchase paper towels, toilet paper, shampoo, and conditioner. I also got our turkey for Thanksgiving, 50lb bag of dog food, 20 lb bag of cat food, light bulbs, and lots of batteries for our different size flashlights. I couldn't believe how much the prices had jumped since last month. How do people with families, no garden or stocked pantry make it? Rice, flour, beans, coffee, cornmeal, and tea, things that most every family use had gone up at least 20 cents and couple items went up over 50cents. I try to get items on sale and am not a brand name shopper. I do look at labels and try to get things with the least amount of additives. Orange juice was on sale so we got 5 gallons. It freezes well. Part of what made the grocery bill higher was purchasing meats. The freezers were starting to look a little bare so I got packages of meats that were on sale. Pork chops, roasts, ham, chicken, hamburger, fish, hotdogs, bacon, sausage and even found a couple of steaks marked down.  Of course turkey was cheap. We got a 18lb turkey for 9.98. I thought about getting two but will watch and see if they go on sale after Thanksgiving and get a couple for the freezer. Won't have to purchase meats next month unless I see some good sales. We have lots of canned and frozen things from the garden, eggs from the hens, milk from the goats, and almost all my cooking herbs I grew and dried myself. Without those things I am sure our monthly bill would be much bigger. I just can't understand how the average family make it. We don't have house or car payments that the average family has and since we heat with wood and have our own well for water we don't have those expenses but still have to be extra frugal to make it. Families with children have to be struggling paying their bills and still having money for food. We are blessed to be able to grow and produce some of our food. I just pray for the families that can't have a garden and are struggling to put food on the table. Hopefully the economy will start to get better soon and families won't have to worry if they should pay a bill or put food on the table.