Peaceful Home

My home is many things to me. Obviously it's where I live with my family, and where all my stuff goes. It's also my place of work, which sometimes makes it hard for me to relax here. Think about being at your job day and night. It would be hard to wind down, or stop thinking about work when it's staring you in the face until you pass out in a drunken wine stupor each night. One of my goals going forward this year, is to create a more relaxing vibe in my home...for me. I think if I can just keep chores out of the living room, and kitchen area visible from the living room (yeah right) that should do it. Since taking on some of the day to day tasks of self sufficiency, keeping a neat and tidy house is not my top priority. As long as it's clean, I'll live. But I still want it to feel warm and cozy and have that feeling of family and love. I've been inspired by a few different blogs lately. Mainly "Soule Mama", which is my super fav right now, and just as soon as this sometimes computer illiterate mama here figures out how to post a link, I'll do that. The idea is turn of the century farm house. Very fitting, don't you think? Rustic wood, vintage fabric patterns, and gentle, clean and natural looking paint colors accented by as many old lady afghans as I can get my hands on at the Goodwill! I think having the right aesthetics will make all the difference in my relaxing. That, and plenty of family snuggles and pinot noir.

Sunday, fun day!

About a month ago I started making yogurt. I had read about people making their own yogurt for a while, but was a little bit afraid to try. I was surprised that it was relatively easy. It's definitely cheaper, and keeps that many more plastic containers from ending up in a landfill somewhere. It does require some time, and patience. Since Sunday is usually our day to just hang around the house, it's the perfect day for yogurt making. It's a process with just a couple of steps. You heat the milk up, cool it back down, add the cultures and then six to ten hours of waiting. Obviously perfect for making before bed, and culturing overnight, but I like to hover over my kitchen experiments. As a result of my need to micromanage bacterial growth, I end up spending Sunday in the kitchen. It's actually nice. I get a lot of my more time consuming food preparation done, and I feel a sense of accomplishment when it's done. Sometimes I make various cold salads for the weeks lunches, dinners for the busy nights when the kids have violin and swimming, condiments, and any thing else that would be impractical to make during the week. There's something deeply satisfying to me about providing healthy food for my family, and doing it in a way that saves money. I always just assumed that certain things were just too complicated to make at home, and that's why they are bought at the grocery store. It turns out that most things are pretty easy to make at home if you have some basic cooking skills, and the will to learn, of course. I realize many people don't enjoy cooking, so the thought of spending a day doing that is not appealing, but I love it and it works for our family.
To make yogurt, you need a starter culture. You can use yogurt from the grocery store for this as long as it is plain and has active live cultures. I made my first batch that way. After that you save a little bit of the yogurt you have made to use as a starter for a new batch. Unfortunately this method is not sustainable for more than two or three batches. The cultures weaken and die off, and you have to buy more yogurt. I really wanted something that could be used indefinitely, so I did some research and found a site that sells heirloom cultures. They didn't cost too much, and should last as long as I make a new batch every seven days or so. If I don't need or want yogurt one week, I can just make a small amount to save the culture. Pretty neat stuff. As far as equipment, you can buy expensive yogurt makers or you can use your crock-pot, like I do. There are other methods that I have read about, but the crock-pot seemed easiest to me.
Here is the method I used:
You'll need a crock-pot, regular cooking pot, spoon, and a thermometer (I use an instant read meat thermometer, but I suspect a candy thermometer would work better).
Turn your crock-pot on low to heat it up.
In a pot on the stove, slowly heat the milk to 185 degrees. The amount of milk you use is the amount of yogurt you make, so if you use a half gallon of milk (like I do) that makes a half gallon of yogurt. You need about two teaspoons of starter for each cup of milk. I must admit that I sort of wing it here, and add around a quarter cup of starter for a half gallon of milk.
Once the milk reaches 185, remove it from heat and cool it down to 110 degrees. You can just let it cool slowly, or set the pot in a pan or sink with cold water to cool it quickly.
Once the milk reaches 110 degrees, remove a small amount and mix it with your culture in a bowl.
Pour the remaining milk, and the culture/milk mixture into the crock-pot and stir thoroughly.
Put the lid on the crock-pot. Then turn the crock-pot off, and unplug it. Wrap it in a heavy towel (like a big beach towel), and let it sit for six to ten hours. Usually takes about ten for me. DO NOT check it before six hours. DO NOT stir it! When you check it, you can gently tilt the crock-pot slightly to one side. You should be able to see if it's thickened. It will also smell like yogurt.
Once your yogurt has thickened, put the crock-pot in the fridge for a few hours. This allows the yogurt to set and reach it's proper thickness. Otherwise, it may be thin and runny. After it sets up, you can ladle it into whatever containers you will store it in. I usually strain about half of mine using cheese cloth and a seive in the fridge for a couple of hours. It makes a thicker "Greek style" yogurt.
I know the instructions may seem complicated, but I promise it's really not. It's so worth it if you have yogurt lovers in your family.

No knead bread

When beginning our adventure in self-sufficiency, one of the first things I was determined to do was make my own bread. I love cooking and always have, but baking always scared the crap out of me for some reason. I think it's all of the science involved. You can't just throw things together until it tastes just right; you have to be methodical. My first successful loaf of french bread changed my view on baking entirely! I tried several different recipes, and was spending at least three afternoons a week baking bread for a while. Once the novelty of my new found skill wore off, and the other chores began to pile up, abandoned for my love of fresh bread, the routine tapered off. I still love the process of kneading the dough and forming the loaf, but sometimes (often really) I need something that requires less effort.

Enter: "No Knead Bread."

I stumbled across the recipe online and gave it a try. Man, it's amazing. It's a time investment for sure, but very little effort. What you end up with is a beautiful rustic loaf of fresh bread that is crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. Perfect to have with soup, or any meal really, or just with butter. Sweet-sweet delicious butter. This is the recipe, so try it. You won't regret it!

 No Knead Bread
1 and 1/2 cups warm water
1 packet of active dry yeast
3 cups bread flour
3/4 tablespoon kosher salt

Add yeast to warm water. Leave for five minutes. Add flour and salt. Mix until everything comes together. Cover and let sit for up to 20 hours. I have made it after 12 and up to 20. The longer it sits, the more flavor it will have. After 20 hours, turn dough out onto floured surface. Fold all the edges toward the center. Place on a floured towel, and put in a bowl to rise for another hour. Preheat oven to 450 degrees for thirty minutes. Put a pot (cast iron enamel is recommended, but I use a regular cast iron dutch oven) in the oven to preheat. The pot should have a lid that is also oven safe. After the bread has risen, and the pot is preheated plop the dough into the pot. Don't worry about how it looks. It's rustic. Put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. After that, remove the lid and bake for additional 15-20 minutes.

Then, take it out and eat it. I promise you'll be happy!  Seriously.  I'm not drunk. :o)

Ephemere and Woodford Reserve

Probably my two favorite boozes right now. I love Ephemere. It has a nice apple flavor without the sweetness of a cider. It's light and delicious and I could drink it for breakfast every day if I didn't care about being a functional member of society. I love beer, and trying new things, but when I go anywhere that has this it's just impossible not to order at least one!
I'm just starting to get into whisky, and my favorite so far is bourbon. Now let me be clear, I super love some Jameson Irish whisky, but Woodford (god I hope I'm getting the name right because it's been a long day and I've been drinking) is just super tasty! It's got the sweetness that I look for in bourbon, and it's also smooth and just delightful to sip on with ice, or without. I'm also a big fan of a hot toddy...tottie....whatever, you know what I mean. Whisky, hot water, lemon, and honey! Perfect winter drink, and wonderful for a cold, or a bad mood :) It's the perfect homesteader cough remedy!

* For the record, I did not origionally have the name of the bourbon right. Thank goodness one of my fellow bourbon lovers pointed that out to me.

The culture of consumption

There's a sickness in this country. It's fueled by our whack system of corporatism. It sucks the life and soul out of people. I used to have it. I'm getting better now. I used to think that if I had nicer stuff I would be happy. That I needed a new cute outfit to go out for a special occasion so I would feel good. A new pair of shoes. A new car. A bigger house. New furniture. Going to nice restaurants, every weekend. Taking the kids to every awesome kid place without worrying how much it costs. Then we could all be happy. Oh, and a big ass tv, we need one of those too. So, for a long time I thought that as soon as my last baby went off to kindergarten, that I would go get a "good" job, and make more money, and we could finally all be happy. I also felt that there was value in what I did, staying at home with the kids when they were little, but not as much value as contributing actual cash flow. I was convinced that making money was more valueable than making a home. I was wrong. Sure, we could maybe spend more money on things, but would that really make any of us happy? What if it doesn't. It didn't for me, or for my family. We have found more joy in our home and our lives in the last year living with less. We have a renewed sense of family that is more than a vacation or two every year, and going out to eat together, or going to a movie on the weekend. We cook together, play games together, read together, learn together. We talk about our thoughts. We eat meals together. We think more. I'm happy. I'm actually proud of myself for once in my life. I wonder how many hours of my life I've wasted trying to be like "everyone else". Hoping that if I had the right clothes, or things that people would value me. I don't buy into the idea that a woman staying home to take care of her family is oppresive. I want to be here. It's my domain. I run this place, and if it weren't for me, it wouldn't run! I have true power here. I have the power to keep my family healthy. I have the power to educate my children. I have the power to build community. I have the power to work to change things that are unjust. I don't need some bullshit chart to put a monetary value on being a homemaker. That's just more bullshit. That's telling everyone else that they should respect it because of it's percieved cash value. It's greater than that, and shouldn't be defined by those terms. I'm glad we are learning to live with less. I'm glad my children will grow up understanding what is truly valuable in this world. I'm confident on this path. It's a cure.

Toilet paper

I promised to elaborate on the whole not using toilet paper thing. For the last ten months, we have gone paperless in our home, and I love it! We gave up paper towels, paper napkins, toilet paper, tissues, and feminine products. Every time I talk to people about this they look shocked. They wonder if I wipe with the hand they just shook. I don't blame them. At first, I was totally into using dish towels instead of paper towels. Cloth napkins instead of paper. Handkerchiefs instead of tissues. But toilet paper?! That just seemed gross. After doing a lot of reading about how much water is polluted in the process of making toilet paper, and how many acres of old growth forest are cut down, not to mention how much money we spend on toilet paper for a family of five, I decided it was worth a try. After all, how do I know something won't work, or that I won't like it if I don't at least try. I cut up some old washcloths and used a couple of old baby wipe containers. I put the clean wipes in one container with a solution of water and a teaspoon or two of Dr. bronners soap. I labeled the other container "used wipes" and sat it on the floor beside the toilet. To my surprise, most everyone liked it. Now this might be TMI, but if that's the case you have come to the wrong blog! The wipes washed up easily, and were much nicer to use than tp. I mean think about it, if you got poop on your hand, would you want to wash it, or just wipe it off with a piece of paper? Um, yeah, I thought so. I like having a clean butt all the time :) I ended up ordering several sets of thin baby washcloths off of Amazon. Probably spent about $30 in all, and we have about sixty wipes. I also bought a couple of squeeze bottle bidet things. That way you can wash with water before you wipe! Even cleaner butts! Since then, we haven't gone back. It's cheap, easy, and better for the planet. I do keep a couple of rolls of recycled tp around for company, but we would never choose to use it again.
    As for the feminine products, I bought reusable organic cotton panty liners, and something called a moon cup (also known as a diva or menstrual cup) from a company called Glad rags. I won't get into all the reasons that shoving a piece of chemical soaked cotton into your vagina for a week every month is probably not a good idea, but tampons are expensive, and eliminating another cost made me really happy. I also really like these products, and think that they are far more comfortable, healthier, cheaper, and better for the planet! Hooray for clean butts and happy vaginas!

Up until now: A history of sorts

I also enjoy drinking.

I guess this being my first official blog I should start by giving a sort of brief history. Last year our family began a journey to a more fulfilling and joyful life. It started out small and like most big ideas, snowballed and continues to do so in the most amazing ways. Initially we set out to pay off some credit card debt, live more frugally, and live a more environmentally friendly life. Along the way we are learning amazing things about ourselves. I'll give a brief rundown of the changes we've made so far.

-No new things! I was spending ridiculous amounts of money at Target every week, pretty much out of boredom. We don't need anything, and if and when we do, buying second hand is fine.

-Being more thoughtful about the resources we use. Water, electricity, fossil fuel. Being aware that these things are limited and treating them as such.

-No more throw aways! This has to be one of my favorites because it was so easy to adapt to. We do not use any throw away paper products. No napkins, paper towels, or toilet paper. No single use items. No excessive packaging. I know, you're probably curious about the toilet paper thing. Most people are. I'll explain a bit later.

-Local food. We buy most of our food from local farms. The only things I buy from the grocery are dry goods that I have yet to learn to produce on my own.

-Self reliance. This year I have learned to make bread. I have learned to make yogurt, ketchup, mustard, mayonaise. I have learned how to can tomatoes, jams and pickles. I have made crackers, granola bars, and anything else that would be traditionally purchased at the store for snacking purposes. We are working on our organic vegetable garden. We harvest our rainwater to water our garden. We are learning to save seeds and learning about food storage.

-We got rid of our TV. This was so hard for me at first. I LOVE tv! We still have a small one in the bedroom for family movie nights, but it is no longer the centerpiece to our family area. That one has made a huge difference. I have read more in this last year than I had in the ten years leading up to it! We play games together and discuss things with each other. It's amazing!

  I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, but I don't want this post to be forever long. I just want a starting off point to share what's to come. I think we've come a long way, and have a long way to go, but I feel awake and alive now like I haven't before. I feel a greater sense of purpose.