Long Time



Greetings from Dr Jones and his mama!



Howdy strangers.  It's been forever, hasn't it?

After a much-needed hiatus, I think it may be time to make a return to bloggerland.   I've really missed blogging, which is crazy because for the most part, I just rambled on about whatever I happened to be doing or thinking.  But maybe we all need a safe spot to ramble?

These past 8-10 months may possibly have been the most difficult months of my life.  Some of you know what I'm talking about from FB statuses, others of you may be totally in the dark.  And for the present, I'd like to keep it that way.  While part of me would like to slowly divulge the life lessons I've learned in 2012, much of me just wants to forget and move on with a fresh slate and new outlook. 

Suffice it to say, my interests are the same; faith, family, food...okay and the occasional firearm.  But the trials of 2012 have changed my perspective on pretty much everything.  And I'm glad for it. 

So, I don't know if anyone will be reading this.  I'm sure a large portion of my readers have moved on, but if there's anyone out there in bloggerland still reading this humble little blog, I intend to start blogging regularly again.  Just as soon as we get through this holiday.  Until then, Happy Thanksgiving....and as Ol Remus would advise.....stay away from crowds.

Blessings,

Andrea 

Let Me 'Splain

So it's been forever. 

I offer no excuses and make no apologies.

Life has been busy lately.  Busy but good.  And I think after a year of turmoil, we're starting to settle into a routine.  Routine isn't something I ever thought I'd miss and/or look forward to, but after a chaotic year, there's great comfort in routine.  So things are good now and I thought I'd share some good with you.

The Good Stuff: The early garden is planted and has survived the weird Ohio spring.  Greens and onions are ready to be harvested and served with a pot of beans and a pan of cornbread.

The "Very" Good Stuff: My mom is finished with radiation, has a beautiful head-full of hair and only has one step left in her treatment, which ends in October.

The "Divinely" Good Stuff: God has been so good and answered so many prayers lately!  After a traumatic (or maybe dramatic) period of growth, I feel like I'm walking closer with Him everyday.  When you finally, really "get" God's grace and the freedom that only comes through Jesus, what an experience!

The "Finally" Good Stuff: Only 15 more school days til I have my kids to myself for 3 months :)

The "About Time" Good Stuff: We're making huge strides in remodeling our basement (after 8 years of putting it off) and we're adding a ventless fireplace and gas cookstove for something akin to off-grid, emergency cooking and heating.

The "I Can't Believe It!" Good Stuff: I'm about to be an aunt again.  Twice.  A great aunt to boot.

The "B.A." Good Stuff: The Mr. bought a new handgun for me that's made concealment much simpler.

The "Learning" Stuff:  I made my first batch of soap last month and while I'm far from proficient at it, I'm learning more each time.

The "Nerdy" Good Stuff: The Mr. was inducted into the Honor Society at Wittenberg and is the class president.  You think he was hard to live with before.............................; )

The "Least of These" Good Stuff: I finally found a ministry to plug into at church: mission support.  It's fantastic and I literally get to help people all over the world, from orphans to AIDS patients to widows to underground missionaries to single moms and the working poor in my own community. God is so good!

I *think* postings should come at a more regular clip now.  The aforementioned routine definitely makes posting a less daunting task, yes?  Anyway friends, I've wasted too much of the day blogging.  Got thistles to pull and groceries to store.  Take care! 

P.S.  If you *really* want to follow me, you can friend me on FB @Andrea.Lynch.31

Strangest Weather

We're having the oddest weather here in Ohio. 

Winter snowfall total: 9 inches.

Number of February days over 50 degrees: 10

Number of March days over 70 degrees: 12

Number of March days over 80 degrees: 4

Chances that the fruit trees that are blossoming 1 month early are going to get frostbit: Almost 100%. 

A Cancer Update

The past 6 weeks have been a real whirlwind, but I think we may be on the downhill slide now.  Yay for downhill slides!

Me first, as my story is short :)  If you recall, a routine exam with my GP ended up with a diagnosis of skin cancer in late January.  Well, praises to God, they removed the entire lesion in one surgery, the incision is all healed up and it appears the scarring is going to be minimal.  I'll have body scans every 6 months, likely for the rest of my life, but that's a minor inconvenience compared to surgery.  I picked up a big, loose, lightweight cotton shirt for gardening and a bottle of self-tanner so that I don't frighten people with my pastey-whiteness this summer. 

Things are progressing nicely for my mom too.  She finished chemo treatments (Taxol) in late January and will continue taking Herceptin (every 1-2 weeks) til October.  The only hiccup in her treatment so far has been that her mediport was improperly positioned; it had to be removed and reinserted on her right side in order to begin radiation on her left.  That stunk!  It was a simple procedure, but had the doctors collaborated a little more at the beginning, it would have been totally unnecessary.  Anyway, she's 7 treatments into her radiation with another 24 to go.  Thankfully, they're quick, painless and far less damaging than the chemo.  Just a few more weeks, and Mom should be able to go hatless/wigless.  Her hair is growing in very quickly, fairly thickly and appears to be the same color/texture as before chemo.  No curly-red surprises!  Boo!  Anyway, 4 more weeks of radiation and this journey will be nearly finished.  Thank you God!   

Best Weekend Ever

Hi friends.  We just finished up the best possible March weekend ever.  Sunny.  Warm.  Beautiful.  Productive.  Slow-paced.  That's what I'm talking about. 

Saturday we spent the morning watching cartoons in jammies, then we went for a visit to our neighbor's farm.  It's lambing season and OMG does he have the sweetest little lambs ever.  Makes me want one; you know, for a pet :)  Mara was determined to pet a lamb, so we lifted her into the stall and she stood bone-still for a solid 10 minutes waiting for a lamb to approach her.  Eventually this little one did; and they just stood there, gazing at each other, studying each other for the longest time.  I loved it!  After we scraped the sheep poo off our shoes, we went carpet shopping.  There's some irony, yes?  We picked out the carpet for our basement remodel, now we just have to knock out a couple walls and we're ready to go.

Sunday after church, we spent the afternoon outside, enjoying the sunny 65 degree day.  We planted the first 200 onion sets, with another 400-500 to be planted later in the season.  We also got leafy greens planted in a raised bed and the site for our new tater bed prepped.  Well, partially prepped.  We're creating a tater bed behind the rear fence, 3 feet deep and approximately 100 feet long.  It should be able to provide for us the #200 of potatoes we're hoping for this year without taking up precious garden space.  Along with the 3ft X 75ft bed for onions and about 10 feet for sweet potatoes, we should have plenty of root veggies to last us into the following spring.

So before I sign off, I thought I'd share with you what turned out to be one of the best investments we ever made.  After much naysaying on my part, Jeff bit the bullet and bought a new yard sweeper last summer.  I thought it was a complete and total waste of money;  if we want grass clippings, we could rake them, right?  Wow.  Was I ever, ever wrong about purchasing a yard sweeper.  Last year, from our little 1.18 acres, we would get 2-3 trailers full of grass clippings each week to mulch the garden with.  What I found yesterday under all those grass clippings was wonderfully loose, dry, easily turned soil.  No need to till.  Few-to-no weeds.  Planting onions was absolutely effortless.  Didn't even need a pitch fork to turn the soil.  So if you've thought about a yard sweeper, please do not hesitate!  You'll thank yourself next spring :)     

Tapping the Trees Pt2

Well, it's been several weeks of experimenting and so far the tapping of the maple trees has worked fairly well.  Some things we'll definitely be doing differently next year though. 

We've decided that next year we'll do the collection part very differently.  This year we used Grimm taps and hung milk jugs underneath to collect the sap.  It worked okay....until the wind blew.  Living on a hill with no windbreak in springtime is gusty to say the least, and as long as there was a good amount of sap to weigh down the jugs, the wind was no problem.  As soon as we emptied the jugs, they were nothing short of wind catchers, blowing about with sap spilling on the ground.  Next year, we'll try the rubber tubing and 5 gal bucket approach.

Boiling down was experimental too.  With the aforementioned wind, it was difficult to get a good, hot, smokeless fire going, even with a homemade-ugly rocket stove.  The first batch tasted so smokey, it had to be dumped.  And it's absolutely true what they say, that you CANNOT boil down sap indoors.  Just trust me on this one, okay?  We ended up using a propane stove in the garage to boil the sap down and then finished it indoors on the stove. 

So far we've produced about a gallon of finished syrup...which isn't too shabby considering the fact we only tapped 5 trees and lost our first batch due to smoke.  The resulting syrup is very light, almost honey-colored ,with a very mild maple flavor.  It's thicker than commercial syrup, though not as thick as Aunt Jemima pancake syrup.  Over all we're very pleased with the product and we're planning on trying it again next year.  There is just something incredibly satisfying about producing sweetener from one's own trees.  And as producing a sweetener was on my list of things to learn, I can cross that off the list and move on to the next.  Yay for accomplishing goals!          

Too Long

Hi Friends,
   How are ya?  My little family is doing well.  Well, it's been too long, way too long, since I've posted regularly to my blog.  I don't know why exactly.  I don't think it's been a lack of interest, but maybe a lack of inspiration and motivation?  I haven't given up the things I love; gardening, food preservation, preparedness; I just haven't felt like talking about it for a while. 

  I've gone through a strange season in my life and perhaps I needed the solitude to sort things out.  Perhaps the dark days of winter got to me a bit this year.  Yesterday morning, when I put the kids on the bus, it was so sunny and warm and bright and my first thought was "I haven't seen the sun in years."  A vast exaggeration, I'm sure, but sometimes it feels that way. 

  Well, I'm determined to get moving again.  Motivated again.  Productive again.  I think just seeing that sunshine yesterday morning, and the first daffodils blooming and the first of the spring lambs born on my neighbor's farm reminded me that, for better or worse, all seasons come to an end and in some manner life renews itself and carries on.  Time for me to carry on too. 

  Starting tomorrow, I begin posting regularly.  Somebody, anybody, hold me accountable if I don't!         

Weekend Blowout

I haven't talked much about Mara's birthday.

I had ulterior motives other than being busy.

We had a blowout this weekend for Mara's 6th birthday.

And to celebrate the end of Mom's chemo, we threw a tandem surprise party.

It's sort of funny, if you ask me...Mom ended up doing a lot of cooking for her own surprise party ;)

Mom had seen the basement all decorated up for Mara's birthday,

but we saved the banner til last minute.

My party girl Miss Mara.

Mara loves, loves, loves her Grandpa.

The gang's all here.

We had around 30 people in attendance including neighbors, family and friends.

Mara got her long-awaited La La Loopsy cake.

And Mom had a few surprises too.

Far too often we reserve get-togethers for end of life.

At death beds.

At funerals.

During upsetting times.

This time, we celebrated life;

A new young life and a life continued. 

Tapping the Trees

This is something I've looked forward to for the longest time....tapping the maple trees! 

Since we began this journey 4 years ago, our goal has been to produce as much edible stuff as possible on our 1.18 acres.  Blessedly, about the same point in time, I met a friend who knew how to make maple syrup and she totally gave me the syrup bug!  How amazing would that be if we could produce a large portion of our sweetener from trees right here on our property?  Even if we could just produce a gallon of finished syrup, that would be more than enough syrup for a year...if we used it cautiously, anyway. 

So yesterday, we tapped.  We used the Grimm spiles and they are performing well so far.  They're supporting the weight of the buckets without bending, so that's good.  They're easy to install and that's good too.

We gathered enough sap yesterday to begin the boiling today...this is going to be a long, slow process, so I'll update you later this week.

Wish me luck!


http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/



Of Taters and Tabasco

Feeling much, much better this morning!  Much more myself, much more optimistic.  And much less pain!

I spent yesterday finishing up the shopping for Mara's big 6th birthday party....she turns 6 on February 2 and we're having a blowout at my mom's on the 4th.  Should be big fun...more details later.

I also got my garden for the 2012 season plotted out and seed list nearly finished.  We had a fairly good season last year, despite the weather-related challenges.  Last year, I reduced the varieties of stuff that I planted and concentrated more on the 'meat and taters' of our diet.  I plan to do the same thing this year.  It's fun to plant 25 different types of tomatoes, but when it comes down to it, we keep going back to the plain jane slicers, cherry and paste varieties.  Last year, thanks to the generosity of Farmer D, we had enough tomatoes to can sauce, crushed tomatoes, soup, juice, etc and I've found it so convenient to have those foods in our storage.  Definitely got to do that again!  So while having purple, speckled and striped tomatoes are fun, this year's garden will be different. 

On the planner for 2012:
Greens (kale, spinach and lettuces)
2 plantings each of carrots and beets
Potatoes (late, early and sweet)
Cabbage and eggplant
Cucumbers and zucchini
Lots of peppers (hot, sweet and Tabasco)
Onions, shallots and garlic (which are already in the ground)
Green beans
An early planting of sugar snap peas followed by a shelling bean
And of course, lots of tomatoes. 

For our permanent plantings, we're adding an asparagus patch, Egyptian walking onions and gooseberries and whatever else we can squeeze in.  Should be a good, good year. 

I'm most excited about the potatoes and Tabasco peppers.  Last year we harvested 110# of white potatoes and 30# of sweet potatoes and I'd like to at least double that.  250# of potatoes sounds like a lot, but I like the idea of never having to buy potatoes again.  And Tabasco peppers....well it's just plain fun making your own fermented Tabasco sauce.  My goal is to keep replacing factory food with homemade and every product we can make is a step in the right direction. 

What kind of plans are you making for the 2012 garden? 

Little Man Ike

It's kind of goofy how excited I am about this, but Isaac cleaned house at the

Pinewood Derby this weekend. 

1st place in his pack.  2nd place in the den.

Not too bad for a car that, due to a design flaw, we had to race backwards :) 

Just When I Think Life Is Returning To Normal....

So I'll skip the intro and get straight to the topic at hand. 

Skin cancer. 

I was diagnosed with skin cancer earlier this week.  I'm blessed that it's not a killer; it's a nuisance and it will likely continue to be a nuisance til my last breath.  Next week, I meet with a surgeon to discuss the pathology reports and we'll go from there.

For Pete's sake, make sure you make and keep your yearly physical exams with your doctor.  Talk with him about any suspicious spots, lumps or bumps and follow through with treatment, even if he's "99% sure it's nothing", as my doctor did.  Know your skin.  Skin cancer doesn't always *look* scary.  It doesn't wait til you're 40 years old.   It doesn't always affect areas subject to frequent sunburns. 

I'm proof of all those things. 

Homesteading Goals 2012

I so love starting anew.  I didn't realize how much pressure/stress/anxiety I was feeling about the holidays until the holidays were over.  SO glad they're over!  No more obligatory baking, cooking, card-sending, merry-making.  Now I can do those things because I *want* to, not because I *have* to.  I feel so much lighter and hopeful now and I can look forward to the coming months with joy instead of dread. 

So I've spent the past week giving thought to what I hope to achieve this year.  Yeah, there's the usual 'lose 10lbs and be a better person' goals, but the ones I really want to focus on are homestead-related. 

1)Plant gooseberries.  My plan is to rip out the butterfly bushes on the south end of the house and plant 6+ gooseberries.  It will look prettier than butterfly bushes...and surely taste better :)  Can't wait for that first batch of gooseberry sauce for a big pork loin. 

2)Start an asparagus patch.  Darling Miss Mara has been begging for an asparagus patch for about 2 years and thus far, it hasn't happened.  But this year, I'm determined it will happen.  Not sure where exactly.  More research is necessary.

3) Try multiplier onions.  These intrigue me, these 'Walking' onions.  They're interesting to look at, and if it means that I'll never have to plant onions again, well that's reason enough to grow them. 

4)Try 'New Jersey Tea'.  From what I read, New Jersey tea is a real close substitute for black tea....and I love me some black tea.  Plus it's a perrenial, so that's a winner. 

5) Locate Wild Ginger.  We eat a lot of ginger, but it won't grow in our area, so this Wild Ginger may be a good substitute.  Supposedly tastes *just like ginger*.  We'll see. 

6) Before fall, construct a hoop house for winter greens.  It didn't come to pass last year, but maybe this year will be our year?  Anyone with experience with growing greens in a hoop house?  In Ohio?  In winter?

7) Produce some sort of sweetener.  Gonna try my hand at making maple syrup.  If that fails, then maybe sorghum? 

What are you hoping to accomplish this year?   

 

Mandatory Christmas Cuteness

Just a few pics from our Christmas celebrations:

Too much sugar.  Too little sleep.

Cousin "O" and Mara

Waiting anxiously.





Mandatory pre-gift pictures.

Gratitude.

Chesney, Isaac and Roni sharing a DS.

Pondering A Change of Name

Happy 2012, Friends!  So glad the old year is gone and today we have a new year for a fresh start!  We spent the evening at home last night, relaxing in comfy clothes and watching TV.  You can keep the parties and the alcohol and the loud music and the crowds and the driving home late at night.  I much prefer being home with my family. 

Anyway, it's a new year and I'm pondering a name change for my blog.  The course of our lives have changed so much over the past few years and as a result the blog name is sort of obsolete.  No more Chicky-Bits here.  They done flown the coop.  Don't tell the Mr., but sometimes, once in a while, I miss keeping chickens.  Not during the winter when I had to trudge through 3-4 ft tall drifts and drag gallons of water through 30mph winds.  THAT I don't miss at all.  Call me a sissy, but I like to be warm and dry. 

In looking back, our path has taken us on a few side-trips into survivalism, livestock, extreme DIY, but always the path came back around to the same objective; producing as many fruits and veggies as possible from our 1.18 acres and removing as many commercial products as possible from our home.  And that aspect of our experiment has been a huge success.  We've managed to turn a patch of dead earth into a homestead that is beginning to pay for itself and that is exciting in any terms! 

So, a name change is in order; both to reflect the goals we've accomplished and to spur us on to accomplish new goals.  I have one in mind...and it's available...so you may be seeing a new header in the next few days.       

Stretching Butter

I learned a new skill today and I'm all full of myself!  In a fit of desperation, I learned how to make stretched butter...and I can tell you that I'll never pay $4 for a bowl of butter again. 

I've been buying the Land O'Lakes spreadable butter for several years because A) it's yummy,  B) it's spreadable and C) I can decipher the ingredients on the package unlike margarine.  Today, we had a crisis when there was no butter for the morning toast and my failing memory flashed back a few months to a Canadian friend talking about stretched butter.  So I looked it up and wow if that's not the easiest stuff to make.  Ever.  Here's what you do:

Bring 2 sticks of real butter to room temperature.  (Don't microwave.  You want it soft, not melted.)  If you've got a KitchenAid, throw them in the bowl and whisk them on high til the butter is creamy.  Reduce the speed and slowly add up to 1/4 cup EACH of water and oil, more or less depending on the desired consistency.  Beat til very pale yellow/white and very creamy.  Refrigerate in a covered container.

That's it.  So easy I'm ashamed to admit that I've been buying bowl butter my entire life.  And so easy, I feel like I've been scammed by butter copanies trying to make a buck LOL.  Oh well.  Live and learn and reclaim the kitchen, right?

Bright Spots in the Darkness

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, friends. 

Yes, it's been a while. 

No, nothing is wrong.

We just needed some time off.

Okay, to be totally honest with you, I think we've been in survival mode for the past 6 or 8 weeks.  Just trying to ride out the tremors and get through the holidays and start the new year full of hope.

So that's where we are now.

Full of hope.

I think 2011 can go down in our family history as the crappiest, most miserable year on record.  It was anxious, quarrelsome, frightening, aggravating, distressing, depressing and I'm so glad to see it end.  2011, a pox on you and your house.

But now things are starting to look up a bit.  We've crossed 2 major hurdles as a family: Thanksgiving and Christmas without Jeff's mom, all the while dealing with my mom's cancer.  And we survived.  And even in the darkness, there were bright spots:

Christmas Eve service with my father in law. 

The reading of "The Stable Where Jesus Was Born" before opening presents. 

Christmas Day, the kids attending 'Big Church' with us instead of Sunday School with their peers and upon witnessing Communion, their 147 questions about why we do that. 

My brother-in-law and his family making a 4 hour drive to spend the 26th with us. 

Remodeling the kitchen. 

Delivering homemade peanut butter fudge and baklava to friends and neighbors. 

All bright spots.       

So now that we're through the holidays and the decorations are put away and we're recovering from the rich foods and frantic schedules, I'm daydreaming about spring and starting seedlings in the basement.  Adding perennials to the landscape.  Learning new skills.  Anxiously watching for those extra minutes of daylight each day.  There's hope and brightness and normality in all those things.

How would you describe your 2011?  What are your hopes for 2012? 

Call Me Combative

Hope you had a great weekend.  Mine was.....weird.

We had a great Veteran's breakfast Friday morning.  Let me tell you, the gym of our little country school was packed with local veterans.  There was singing, feasting and my little man's Cub Scout pack acted as the Honor Guard and presented the Colors.  Which still brings a lump to my throat.

After we left the breakfast, the Mr. and I went to a local grand opening of a small sporting goods shop.  Nice place.  That morning, the place was full of Veterans, most of them elderly and in still in their uniforms, having just left local ceremonies.  When we went to check out, the gal gave us our total and I stopped her and asked if she neglected to give Jeff his veteran's discount.

"I don't think we do that," she said.

Thud.

"You're telling me that you opened on Veteran's Day, the place is crawling with old men who served and you don't give them a discount?  Manager, please." 

I don't know what they did after we left, but while I stood there, they gave discounts. 

So later that night, we went out to eat.  I won't disclose where...but let's just say it's a nationwide chain.  When I asked the waitress about their Veteran's Day promotion, she was a little embarrassed.

"If you buy a pancake, we donate a dime to the VFW to help returning active-duty soldiers and their families."

"Great. And for your veterans?" I asked.

She blushed.  They used to offer free desserts, but corporate discontinued that promotion.

So for the 90-year-old man sitting at the counter in his USS Arizona hat, having fought his way through the Pacific islands and survived: nothing.

For my "old guy", who spent 10 years as a combat medic, jumping out of Chinooks and C-130's: nothing.

And you know, it's not the pie LOL.  It's the lack of recognition that burns me up.  That old man saw conflict like we can NEVER imagine and he doesn't get so much as a nod from this restaurant;  a restaurant, mind you,  that claims we're all one big happy country family.  Needless to say, I've been burning up the wires between here and said 'corporate'.  Call me combative if you want, but I want them to tremble in anticipation each morning as they open their email, dreading seeing my name in their in-box.

Okay.  Coming down from my soapbox now.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, some sweet photos from the 2011 Veteran's Day Breakfast.



Isaac, Daddy, Mara and Mama.




My "old guy" and my little guy.
"Are we done with the taking of the pictures?"



Isaac's troop getting ready to present the Colors.

An unexpected visitor! 
My neighbor/cousin 'S' home from fighter pilot training.

"I Fought For You"

Don't forget what this holiday is for. 

It's not for golfing. 

Or shopping at the Mega-mall. 

It's for remembrance.

They fought for us.

And they'd do it again.

Show them you love them with deeds, not words.

Dedicated to the Mr, my All-American 82nd, whom I'll love til my dying breath.  
To my uncles who fought in the Pacific theater.
To my great grandfather who thought the Germans weren't nearly as scary as his dad and enlisted at 16. 
To my "other Papaw" who gave all in Korea.
To my dad.

For Daddy

I was watching Veterans Day youtube videos early this morning when Isaac came toddling down the stairs, still half asleep.


"Watcha doin, Mama?"

"Watching Army videos" I said.

... He watched for a minute and then said:

"You know, Daddy was in the Army. Did he do stuff like that?"

"Yep," says I. "Daddy jumped out of airplanes to help people."

"Good airplanes?" he asked. " Not ones that were crashing?"

"Just the good ones," I replied.

Isaac was quiet, just for a second and then said:

"Daddy's awesome, you know."


I know.