Cloth poop catcher fun rocks! A cloth diaper post.

Yesterday I got some “fluffy mail” (in the cloth diapering world this mean a diaper related mail delivery). I ordered a few more cloth diapers and some much needed diaper safe laundry detergent so I could begin using my cloth diapers.

We are working on our last pack of gifted disposable diapers and don’t intend to buy more which means the cloth diaper stash needs to be expanded ASAP.

Can I just add that Huggies Pure & Natural diapers suck big time? They really do! Poor E has poop stuck to her butt in these diapers, like the fabric repels the poo or something (and it is breastfeeding poo so it’s not solid, just liquidy). I much prefer Seventh Generation disposable diapers over the Huggies hands down!

Anyway, I bought some Planet laundry detergent and 3 more BumGenius diapers and was stoked when it all arrived! Yesterday I pre washed the diapers via the special instructions, line dried them (since our dryer still needs a power cord) and today we are breaking them in.

Now this isn’t the first time E’s worn cloth diapers. We were gifted a variety of cloth diaper goodness ranging from prefolds to pocket diapers.

I was even given some hand-me-down handmade made diapers that were actually her first cloth diaper experience (see the photo on the left). Some of the diapers I have need plastic covers/ wraps. My pocket diapers don’t need a plastic outer cover or wrap.

We tried out the diapers that needed the wraps and covers first since they didn’t need as much special laundry treatment. The problem with them right now is they are super bulky on E right now. She is heavy but is still little and those bulky diapers kind of dominate her as you saw in the above photo. We’ve resolved to use those once she gets a tad bigger.

In the meantime we are using trimmer cloth diapers. BumGenius 3.0 and GroBaby are the diapers I am currently trying out. They are much less bulky and they have a built in waterproof cover.

I put baby E in one at 2pm and by 5:30pm she was crying so I checked out her diaper. It wasn’t wet looking from the outside and wasn’t leaking so I opened it up to find some poop and lots of pee. It all stayed nicely inside the diaper, woot!

So I changed her from the green diaper to an orange one and am pleased with the BumGenius so far. All the moisture was wicked away from her bottom and absorbed by the nifty newborn insert which means the start of diaper rash that she was getting (thanks to those awful Huggies diapers) should clear up fast.

I’ll admit I was intimidated to actually try out cloth diapers. Once I received a few the washing and care instructions scared the crap out of me. Each fabric type needs special treatment. I was sure I would ruin the diapers or that they wouldn’t work right after I pre washed them. I am happy to say that so far the BumGenius diaper test has gone very well and I am so stoked to be cloth diapering! Gotta get more diapers now, aka poop catchers.

By the way this is NOT a sponsored post, I paid good money for these diapers and some were gifted by readers.

Green poop filled BumGenius = I

After reading Witchypoo’s recent post I’ve decided to steal her idea and share a little back and fourth email fun with you… What? I am ready to pop and feeling quite lazy in the blogging department these days!

First some background. Witchypoo left me a comment on this post and then sent me a paypal payment so I could get something special for Tater.

At first I thought she was paying me to stop whining about baby stuff or something, then she clarified that she wanted to buy Tater a nifty cloth diaper but figured it should just be easier to give me the money so I could do what I wanted with it.

I took the paypal monies and promptly visited cottonbabies.com where I bought Tater

<— this beauty on Witchypoo’s behalf.

Witchypoo: I’m glad there was enough! And now, you will associate me forever with poop. Does it get any better than that?

Me: Yep, you get to be the green poopy nappy. Yay! Who knows the poop may even match the green on the diaper, even better. I’ll photograph it and blog about it.

Witchypoo: Hahahaha! Green is my colour! Don’t miss dirty diapers at all, though, especially the green-filled ones. Way ranker than rancid farts.

Me: Ooo, I bet and just think, I get to spray mine off with the diaper sprayer over the toilet while not getting the runny green poop all over myself and everything else in the bathroom. I’ll so be thinking of you.

Witchypoo: I knew I should have knit a fucking hat. Babies heads smell soooo good.

Me: LOL! Nope, you are forever associated with the green, reusable diaper. Stinks huh? Can I post these emails on my blog? Yep, I am copying your ass. What? It will make a good lazy post for while I am away at The Farm squeezing out my spawn!

Witchypoo: You may have noticed that I have no shame. Oh, sure. I’m all about the poop. Now I’ve graduated to green poop. I can die happy now.

Me: Now you should change your nickname to Witchypoop.

Munching cat poo "cookies" is gross!

I am not sure what is so appetizing about eating cat poo piles from the cat box but our dog is totally addicted to it.

It worries me because cat litter can’t be good for a dogs digestive tract plus the process of eating cat poo somehow results in the poo and litter being strewn about the bathroom and the house (which is bad because I am not allowed to handle cat feces while pregnant) plus it just makes you want to vomit.

Sometimes I wonder how much of the poo she actually eats and how much just gets thrown about in the process. Either way poo eating is bad business in my opinion.

Yesterday while I was in the bedroom blogging and watching Desperate Housewives I heard things moving in the bathroom. Since our kitten, Gabby, was acting all psycho at the time I figure she was just tearing through the house knocking stuff over as usual.

Then I heard some major action in the covered cat box. Since 3 out of the 4 indoor cats don’t understand the concept of scratching the cat litter after doing their business I just figured a cat had used the box and was proceeding to noisily scratch the side of the box or some other area that was not the cat litter. Freaking geniuses!

So I continue blogging and I hear the cat box jostling and all that. Then I hear the dogs collar jingle and I realize the dog has her head in the cat box. This makes my blood start to boil because the cat box is so off limits to her and she knows it.

I called her name and sure enough she comes out of the bathroom hanging her head because she knows she is caught and doing something bad. I head towards the bathroom to assess the cat poo mess and I get to see Dixie, our dog, still working to finish off the piece of cat poo that is hanging from her mouth.

You see the cats eat everything they shouldn’t. Like ribbon, string and even my hair apparently because the cat poo that was dangling from Dixie’s mouth was being held together by my hair and she was having a hard time getting it down in it’s weird stringy state.

I was so disgusted to have to witness the cat poo “cookie” eating even after I shooed her out of the bathroom so I reprimanded her and took her down to her room. On the way down the stairs the poo “cookie” she was enjoying came loose from her mouth and fell on the steps. I photographed it just for you so you could share in my disgust!

I wish we had a laundry room on the main floor that we could keep the cat box and cat food in. I would gate the room off with one of those baby gates to keep the dog out and would never have to deal with “cookie” eating ever again. One day I’ll get my wish!

Great blog post for the first of the year huh? Yay for 2009! I just wanted to lighten things up a bit around here. Hope it worked…

Oh I am so taking Teeni up on the speedy meme she posted today:

Meme details: This one is from Speedcat Hollydale. The rules are:

  1. Take a picture of yourself right NOW!
  2. DON’T change your clothes
  3. DON’T fix your hair…
  4. Just take a picture.
  5. Post that picture with NO editing.
  6. Post these instruction with your picture.
  7. Tag some people to do this meme.

Here is my photo contribution taken with Photobooth on the MacBook:

I am tagging my close girlfriend, Krystal, who writes over at: http://tapthatmom.wordpress.com/, I am also tagging April for this meme and anyone else who wants to participate!

Cat poo, candles and flaming tales. More pet madness to share!

You know how sometimes when you do something you get this flash of disaster scenario warning you of the what-if’s? I got one right as I was lighting a candle in my stinky bathroom.

You see I was drawing a bath which is an immediate invitation for one of my cats to take a giant steaming dump and leave it uncovered in the box for my enjoyment. Nothing is more relaxing than a nice warm bubble bath and the aroma of steaming cat turd right? WRONG!

So I am lighting a few candles to make it smell better before I get in to the tub. I set one on the back of the toilet and was about to walk away when I realized the lit candle was right next to the economy size bottle of Listerine. Um Listerine=flammable right? (I remember the time N’s root beer concoction exploded and sent glass shards flying at my neck. Go read the post, it is craziness too! Explosions are not fun!) “That is just a disaster waiting to happen” I conclude and I move the candle to the top of the enclosed cat box instead.

After making myself a corn dog and a cup of tea I climb in to the tub to relax. I am relaxing and have now finished my corn dog so I set my plate on the top of the toilet so it doesn’t fall in to the tub with me.

My oldest kitty, Andrew, decides that the corn dog stick is just what he needs so he grabs it off my plate and jumps to the floor right in front of the cat box. I scold him for being a stealer and take a sip of my tea. When I glance back at him he is looking at me, then at back at his tail and back at me again.

I look at his tail and it is lit like a freaking torch thanks to the candle on top of the cat box. It seems while he was munching the corn dog stick he placed his tail in the flame of the burning candle and his tail just went up in flame.

I freaked and yelled his name, Dixie rushes in the room because whenever we yell one of the cat’s names she sees it as her invitation to wrangle them up. (She is part herding dog.) So I tell her to sit as I am leaning over the side of the tub trying to put Andrew’s tail out before he completely catches fire.

I just grabbed his tail with my wet hand (This isn’t the first time adrenaline has caused me to place my hand on or near a flaming object.) and put out the flame. I am amazed he didn’t burst in to flame!

Now his tail looks all pitiful and the stench of burning cat hair combined with steaming cat poo and smelly candles is just awful! There are all these cat tail ashes on the bathroom floor and in the sink now, Andrew is not a happy camper.

Luckily he is a giant floof ball and the flame never made it to his skin, just burned off a nice chunk of hair. It is craziness nonetheless!

Bullet point Wendesday, with photos!

  • Pregnancy has caused this birthmark looking thing to appear on my back, it was never there before but my brother has a birthmark that is the exact same shape on his side. It is probably hyperpigmentation caused by the pregnancy huh? Well I thought it was strange…
  • Can everyone see on my new baby widget that I am almost 9 weeks along? My other widget was only displaying correctly in Mozilla, other browsers were showing jacked up due dates and such. I am hoping that the due date discrepancy is fixed now. Let me know if you are still seeing something odd.
  • When did Trix cereal stop being fruit shaped? I swear they used to be shapes of fruit, you know grape shaped and citrus slice shaped… Now they are just round balls of color with various flavors… Not nearly as fun in my opinion! Also, I think they taste different now that they aren’t fruit shaped and it is not for the best. It is kind of like how people only eat certain colored m&m’s… Now Trix aren’t as good in my eyes. Sad.
  • Thanks to http://spookiez.blogspot.com/ for participating in the Comment Luv contest. I won a 2GB Memory Card on her site today thanks to the contest and am pleased. I never win anything so finally winning is nice!
  • We splurged and spent $300 on a new soft top for our Amigo that should arrive in about a week. The Amigo is our only car right now since the Nissan engine died back in early June 2008 and we had to leave it at The Ranch and move 1500 miles away. We still intend on getting a new engine for it and driving it out to Indiana but in the meantime we had to replace this thrashed old soft top. Especially since the frigid winter is here!

    As you can see the current soft top is practically useless with all it’s holes and tears. N has been freezing driving it back and fourth around town lately so getting a new, hole free top is going to be a great treat.
  • Oh last thought for you. I love cinnamon scented pine cones this time of year. They make me happy!

Get in on the pool and win some cash!

When it comes to gaining weight in pregnancy and loosing weight after delivery every woman is different. Since we were planning our wedding before I found out I was pregnant (yeah we do almost everything backwards) baby weight is something that has been in the back of my mind.

I already have my wedding dress in the bedroom closet. It is to big for me right now but will it fit after I deliver the baby? I have joked with people about keeping our initially planned wedding date the same despite the pregnancy. That would mean our wedding is 3 weeks after I have our baby.

The idea is awfully ambitious and may not work out anyway but the mere idea of it brings a ton of questions. Even if we marry 2 years from now will my already purchased wedding dress fit me? Will it be too big or too small after I deliver? How much weight will I gain in pregnancy and how much will be lost?

Anyone who has already had a child has their own weight gain experiences to draw from and amazingly everyone’s predictions are different. Why not turn those predictions in to a fun little game that gets 2 lucky readers some cash?

This is what prompted me to start Talina’s weight gain and loss pool. Guess my delivery weight and how much I’ll weigh 1 week after giving birth. Winner takes 80% of the cash pool, runner up takes 20% (after the paypal fee). Winners will be determined by a point system. Check the Talina’s weight gain and loss pool contest page for info on the point system.

All you have to do is pay $1.00 to get in on the pool ($1.00 per entry), each entry will 1. guess my weight at delivery and 2. guess my weight 1 week after delivery. Use this button to pay your $1.00 and enter your guesses.











You’ll see an area to “add special instructions to seller” on the paypal page. That is where you will enter your guesses. As the entries come in I’ll post them here and update you on how much is in the pool that is up for grabs. The more people that get in on the pool the more you can win so spread the word guys, it will only line your pockets!

I’ll be dropping hints in my blog posts about my weight, appetite and growth. If you subscribe to this blog you wont miss any helpful info!

Last night (17 days after conception) I weighed in at 103lbs, my waist has already grown 1/2 and inch and so have my poor sore boobies. So there is your first bit of info.

Now go forth and join the pool, you know you want to share your guesses! Oh, if you don’t want a chance to win moola but would still like to be able to share your guesses you can do so in the comments area but if you use the button you’ll have a chance to win some cash…











P.S Thanks to Maiden53 I have a spiffy little pregnancy widget there just to the right of this blog post… Do you see it? I like it because it tells how far along I am and what is going on with me. This is mostly for my own educational purposes but I figure you might care too.

P.S.S I am also thinking about buying myself a purple plate from Witchypoo‘s shop to help with the pregnancy. Do you think that would help? I am still new to the whole purple plate thing but it seems like a good idea.

The Mesker Zoo and cat poo…

There is cat poo behind the front door again, thanks a bunch Hailey! She has been pooing back there for a week, for nothing other than the enjoyment of pissing me off. Both the cat boxes are clean and I have been scrubbing the poo area to get the smell out like every day.

I am thinking about just setting her free outside that way she can poo anywhere she wants. Anyone want a carpet pooing cat? Just kidding.

Enough about the cat poo. We are supposed to get some rain tonight here in Evansville. For the last few weeks we have heard nothing but whining about how dry and hot the weather has been. Every night when I switch on the news to see N’s report I hear about how hot and dry it was again today.

We think it has been just fine weather, minus the blood sucking mosquitoes. It has been much like Phoenix, AZ weather- hot and dry (but not nearly as hot as Phoenix). We are used to hot and dry and now that we have a house with AC (unlike Flagstaff, AZ) no heat or humidity is too unbearable for us.

Yesterday we went to the Mesker Evansville Zoo yesterday and had fun checking it all out. There were so many great animal exhibits and plants to view. Our favorite was the Amazonia exhibit because it was so beautifully landscaped and it allowed for great access to the animals.

After visiting the Amazonia exhibit I was really wondering how all the tropical plants can survive in this climate. The zoo had so many cannas, elephant ear and other tropical plants that shouldn’t be able to live year round here. So many businesses and homes in the Evansville area also have these same tropical plants everywhere so how is this possible?

According to the national gardening association our USDA zone for Evansville is Zone: 6A so plants that can’t handle cold winters shouldn’t be growing here. Unless everyone rushes out and digs them up and stores them during the cold weather.

Now these tropical plants are EVERYWHERE here in Evansville and I just can’t imagine that everyone runs out and digs them up before the first frost. That is just too much work and hassle and I just don’t believe that is what people actually do.

Well I better get going now. N has been anticipating seeing the fall decor go up and I have been putting it off for a while now. Over the weekend we visited Rural King and snagged some clearance mums to make our doorstep too like fall. Now I need to dig out the rest of the fall decor and get things decorated!

Heading home! Boy I am pooped!

After spending 12 hours in Disneyland yesterday I am just not motivated to do anything today! Unfortunately we are heading back to Disneyland for the band kids performance and then we will have 4 hours for shopping or ride riding before we load our bus and head home.

We road to California in this tricked out “party bus” that makes sleeping during the bus ride very difficult. It is like a limo with disco balls, strobe lights and all that jazz. The seats are leather couches that face each other and the seating is a bit tight.

I think we walked like 12 miles yesterday between both parks and all the rides. We had park hopper passes and we got to ride tons of cool rides without having to stand in line for hours. The trip has been fun but I am ready to sleep in my own bed tonight!

Well, I am setting in my hotel room ready to checkout with my feet up writing this blog post. I’ll share some photos with you all when I have a bit more time to draft a better post, perhaps tomorrow… I can’t wait to sleep in my bed!

Prenatal appointments, huge zits and freezing rain fill my brain.

This week I have not one but two prenatal appointments scheduled. I am now in my 15th week of pregnancy (yippie!) and will be meeting Pamela @ The Farm this weekend. We are also seeing the OBGYN on Thursday morning for our 3rd prenatal appointment.

N is anticipating the prenatal appointments because he gets anxious to hear that little Tater Tot’s heart is still beating. He admitted last night that it is hard for him to trust that all is going as planned with Tater Tot inside my uterus since he can’t feel any movement yet or experience the growth and body changes I am going through. Although he does admit to having sympathy symptoms right along with me.

I let him feel the tightness in my lower belly where Tater Tot is growing, let him feel where my uterus presses extra hard on my bladder and intestines so he got little belly field trip to help him feel better. We have about another month to go until we find out if Tater Tot is a boy or a girl, we probably wont have another ultrasound picture until then either.

In other news I have a gianormous zit on my neck that is making me a bit crazy, it is like a second head is growing or something and no matter what I do to it (including stabbing it with a sewing needle) it will not pop or go away. I thought you might like to know about this but I wont be photographing it for you, sorry. All you get is poo photos! On second thought why not take a photo of the zit for you? I am not shy!

Oh and did I mention that we still have not had a single snow fall here this winter? Today we have more craptastic freezing rain but no frigging snow! We are never going to see snow ever again, isn’t that wonderful? Ooo looks like that freezing rain has turned to snow! Hurray, we get to see some fluffy white stuff falling. It isn’t sticking but it is still nice to see.

I told N that I would not be sad about moving from this town at the end of his 3 year contract, of course we will try to stay in this general vicinity of the US since we spent so much moving here and all. Anywhere near here that is foresty and gets snow is fine with me, this place is nasty.

The island of orphaned farm animals & more…


The girls are both at school today (well they were, then one came home sick!) and I’ve amazingly had a few spare minutes so I figured I’d sit down and try to write a blog post! Terrible intro huh?! Lets try again…

There’s lots going on here at Homestead right now. One of the most exciting things that we have going on is that we’ve decided to take up Maple sugaring! 

Initially we had planned on maple sugaring to sell syrup, as one of our first family farm projects. Continue reading “The island of orphaned farm animals & more…”

It’s unfortunate when you “golden shower” yourself… Right?

Someone has popped two top teeth through and is getting quite active, so active that the worn out velcro closures on my five year old cloth diapers aren’t doing the job anymore. Must make time to covert the velcro to snaps, ASAP!

Last night when I heard a tiny baby cough coming from the bedroom I went in all concerned. Has he been sleeping so long because he is getting a cold? I peek in on him and see exposed penis…

I find golden beads of urine, on his belly, his arms, his face and his hair…that sprayed every which way. He’s coughing because he’s just gotten a golden shower.  

His bed was soaked, his body was drenched. Poor guy thought he was drowning in his bed I bet.

After a nice warm bath he was good as new again.

On crashing and lessons learned during the first week of farm life.

We’ve officially completed our first week on Tanglefoot Ranch. Its been a major whirlwind of activity but its been really great. Speaking of Tanglefoot, are you on our mailing list yet?

Seeds have been sowed, our future chicken/ garden space is being readied. I’ve taken over care of the 40 meat birds. Nathan learned to drive a riding mower, he helped repair electric cattle fencing, he has helped with tractor mowing. A dining room is being constructed near the farm’s big kitchen garden. There has been weeding, snake killing, tomato trellising and raspberry picking. We’ve learned the weighing of juvenile shrimp, Nathan and Everly have moved LOTS of juvenile shrimp from the nursery pools to their permanent ponds while a crew from RFD – TV shot some footage of the process. 

We’ve learned of a cherry tree off our back deck and also spotted some tiny apples beginning to form on another tree off the deck. We also believe we have several maple trees that are tappable come spring. Time to gather tapping supplies!

We had a long day of moving over the weekend… again. We didn’t get all our stuff moved on the first round and we’d done zero cleaning of the old place so we made another trip over the weekend.

We succeeded at arriving in Evansville at a reasonable hour but we failed at leaving at one. When pulled out of town with a loaded truck the Evansville sun was setting. That should have landed us home at 10:30 pm. Not ideal but we decided we were just rolling with the punches.

Once we turned on our new home’s street, we were driving along the gravel road, thinking of arriving at home when things went very wrong. At first I thought Nathan had slowed the trailer or that the trailer was struggling to climb the hill we were on… then I realized the trailer wasn’t’ slowing, it was rolling backwards! 

I hit the break, braced myself and the trailer slammed into the front of the Prius so hard it woke the kids and sloshed my water (that was in a cup holder) all over my lap. After the impact I engaged the emergency break and tried to make sense of what had happen.

Picture a seriously loaded up stock trailer, hillbilly style. Now pretend you are looking at it from behind – that was me. Now visualize it rolling backwards and slamming against your car causing your car to roll back a bit… Then it stops. 

Once I was sure the momentum and motion had ceased I reassured my backseat full of panicked kids that we were okay. There was all sorts of crying and question asking. Then I call out my window to Nathan. “Hello? Is every thing okay up there because I think we are holding the trailer with our car.” 

It turns out the truck that was towing the trailer ran out of gas despite the reassurances we were given that we should have enough gas… oh and the gas gague is wonky and doesn’t provide an accurate read. Now we know. LOL.

The two lessons we learned are:

  1. Always make sure, even if someone reassures you.
  2. Never follow a heavy trailer up a hill. Always lead the trailer.

Word is that many poor unsuspecting souls have lost loads of things or control of their vehicles while on the hill we were navigating. And now we know better for next time ;P

 

We’ve made it to Tanglefoot Ranch.

It was a steamy, stormy day but we we loaded a trailer, a stock trailer, a van and two cars with our stuff and drove two hours away to make a new life in the country. The Tanglefoot crew came out and helped us load our lives up and make the trek. They are a thoughtful and welcoming bunch of people. We are uber blessed to have crossed paths with them. They’ve even made us food (including fresh baked gluten free brownies) while we’ve been busting butt to get moved in. How thoughtful and surprising is that? 

The girls woke us this morning at the butt crack of dawn saying “we need to get an early start to the day guys, there is cherry picking to do!” Here is them out picking cherries out in their PJ’s ——->

Earlier in the week we got word about a long forgotten cherry tree that was uncovered on the property we would be living at. The girls were stoked to hear this and have visited the tree often today to load up on sweet treats.

Today we also unpacked the trailer and got the chickens & turkeys set up with a temporary house. This morning poor Adalyn was farm initiated as we fed and watered the poultry, she was tromping the fields behind us and stepped in a juicy cow pie and promptly slid right through it…on her side. She was NOT pleased and had to ride back to our house in just her undies since she was coated head to toe in cow dung.

It has been a looooong 48 hrs but we are here with the animals and kids partially settled in. We have a permanent chicken coop to build for these birds so they can move out of the stock trailer and get more permanently settled. Can you see how stoked they are to have all this green to munch and lounge around in? 

 

Tomorrow we go to work. We are moving the shrimp from the shrimp nursery to the shrimp ponds with a TV reporter in tow it seems. And I need to plant a huge kitchen garden, and plant our own personal garden, and remove poison ivy/ oak from some places. And I might want a milking goat. Lots to do, so much possibility and only so many hours in the day… 

Owned parents: Leaders of the crazy train and sometimes the best birth control ever!

I’m normally pretty good at solo parenting outings but they really don’t happen often. We all very much prefer to stay home in our PJs… After you read this you’ll understand why.

My kids are experts on “packing their bags” with necessities and snacks for outings. Everly is such a pro at it that if you don’t oversee her she’ll pack up enough snacks to feed an army. This morning I packed a small handful of gluten free crackers and two oranges but Everly packed up her extra pancakes from breakfast along with a giant container of water with a puppy and her blankie… Adalyn packed up her blankies, a penguin.

The rain is pouring outside so the girls are given a kid-sized cow umbrella to share, I heft my diaper bag/ backpack on my back, I’ve got my Moby wrap tied around me, car keys in hand, I pick up Mr. Grayson, his blanket, I grab my water and an umbrella to protect me and Grayson and I shooo the girls out the door in front of me.

Of course two young girls sharing an umbrella in the pouring rain while hefting their bags move incredibly sloooooowwwwly. Grayson and I follow behind them prodding them along to the car… Continue reading “Owned parents: Leaders of the crazy train and sometimes the best birth control ever!”

Butter, oh butter

Making butter is quite easy but for some reason I’ve always viewed it as wasteful and unpractical. I guess I just assumed making butter requires you to use raw milk in it’s entirety (and raw milk is quite the commodity!). Plus, only a small portion of butter results from the whole gallon of milk and I was under the impression the liquid left over once the butter separates is a waste product.

I’ve never felt inclined to make butter myself. Yet I LOVE me some raw butter and as of late it’s been pretty hard to come by… and it so good for you.

The most healthful raw butter is a springtime commodity in the milking world.

Cows fed on rapidly growing spring grass produce milk that contains high levels of beta carotene and five times the amount of CLA, an essential fatty acid that has a strong anti-cancer properties.  Continue reading “Butter, oh butter”

Big changes are in the works for this homestead!

Over the weekend we got a TON of outside work done here on the half-acre homestead because we just put our house on the market! That’s right, we can’t put it off any longer. Our house is in less that perfect showing condition and is VERY lived in with the five of us crammed in here but we have to at least give selling a try. Continue reading “Big changes are in the works for this homestead!”

Counting down to winter & our baby boy… Just a few weeks left!?!

Here in Southern Indiana, we are officially experiencing the Fall season. I’ve even had to kick on the heater a few times! The garden growth and harvesting has died down lots, as have our hen’s egg production. This year we had two odd volunteer pumpkin plants that sprang up and just flourished all season with zero care from us. They’ve managed to survive all 7 chickens and now they have produced about 6+ very pretty pumpkins that are just about ready for picking. They are even growing over the back fence and up on our grape arbor, not at all rambling on the ground like traditional pumpkin growing.

You know, we’ve never had organic pumpkin growing success so this is very exciting for us. We are guessing the volunteer pumpkins arrived via our chicken/ bunny’s poop. Last season we fed them several mushy decorative pumpkins we’d bought from other farms. The seeds seem to have made it though and found a perfect place to grow. How cool is that? Continue reading “Counting down to winter & our baby boy… Just a few weeks left!?!”

The exciting news we are ready to share. It’s a …

It’s true we have some exciting news to share. It was officially announced to our close circle of loved ones our wedding. Actually, we’ve been dropping hints here and there and even dropped a major hint at the actual wedding… You already know that we had our belated wedding this month right? If not, you can read about it and see photos here.

Anyway, we kept our exciting news super secret for almost 5 months until we hinted at it with our custom crafted wedding cake topper. Continue reading “The exciting news we are ready to share. It’s a …”

Murphy’s Law and Such…

There is so much going on right now, some I can share… some I cannot.

You already know, our very belated wedding is nearing, fast. Remember how we posponed it while pregnant with Everly? When it comes to important life stuff…

 “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”.

Except, for us the “going wrong” isn’t really all that terrible, just inoppotune type stuff like infertility clearing up right after engagement. Continue reading “Murphy’s Law and Such…”

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