Our Family Has Grown

My husband recently told me if he could have the perfect life he would work full time at his current job and be a weekend farmer. 

When he first told me that, I thought that was amazing because we both love being busy. Well little did I know as we continued on with our conversation that he would make his wife (me) work full time maintaining this Farm during the week, shoveling the shit so he could enjoy the farm life after the dirty work was done. 

So as any couple we try to compromise on almost everything... however I also almost "win" every time.

So our compromise was that we get chickens to start.... He wanted meat chickens and I wanted laying chickens.. So I could love them and hug them and call one George !  Then I realized that we already had a cat named George, sometimes we lose track of all the names

So we went into the local farm store to  "order" only two chickens and walked out with five. Yep, this wife now has five awesome chickens! We got them at a day old and it's unbelievable how fast they grow and develop.  

Now, to why we needed five chickens? It came down to math, we had to have a minimum of five chickens. So we got five. These Cute yellow chicks will grow into beautiful white leghorn chickens which should in theory lay an egg a day, omelettes anyone? 

As we anxiously waited for our chickens we were trying to figure out names, not like we would be able to keep track of them - but hey, everyone needs a name ! 

So we are happy to announce the new family members:

Lou

Tesla (The husband really wanted a Tesla, and the car was just too expensive)

OR  ( Short for Original Recipe)

Chick 4 and Chick 5 we still are working on some names, who would of thought naming so many animals would make it difficult not to choose names that you may want when you start to create a "human family" . Oh the homestead dilemma!  

The day I had to go and pick up our chicks, I walked back into the store and gave the lady my name. She looked at me and giggled, I was confused. So I asked Is everything okay? She looked me dead in the eyes and said " that box is yours?" Once again, confused to these comments I asked if I should be scared. Well as another lady walked with the box you could here these chicks throughout this huge store, everyone stopped to stare and the box was literally jumping out of this ladies hand! Yup... Of all chickens we had to get the crazy ones. 

Until Next Time, don't be a chicken and enjoy life! 

Homestead Wife

xx

Knitting and Hot Wax

Project No. 1 
Knit One, Pearl Two

 This week has been filled with little project's for this house wife, thanks to the husband. When people ask where I live and who with I tend to say "I live in a zoo, with four cats, a husband and now chickens on the way".

As I try to get the turkey noises out of my head from that crazy husband and the real ones walking across or property I never want to hear or see a turkey again. Thank you sweetheart for ruining the joy of turkey dinner at holidays - I will never be in love with the word of Turkey ever again!

To help drown the sound I put my headphones on and finished my knitting project, my "resting blanket". 10 balls of No.6 Bulky Yarn, 20 cups of tea, and god knows how many hours later - We have a cozy warm blanket. I am hoping to do it in a different colour, so let the Michael's coupons start coming in.

Pattern

Start with 40 cast on's and just knit, knit, and knit.

( I know, great pattern. I kept this one simple)

Project No. 2
Husband, Wife, Hot Wax and A Bed

Well, It wouldn't be fair it I just said it was all the husbands fault... Well for now we will blame him.

My Husband and I are a very playful couple, we work hard everyday in everything we do but we enjoy to laugh even more. One night we were laying in bed watching reruns of Friends (Pivot, Pivot, PIVOT) and we were just making jokes, laughing and enjoying fresh popped popcorn.

As we were waiting for the next episode to download he rolled over to blow this candle that I had lite on the end table, note - I didn't know what he was doing, I thought maybe getting more popcorn or a drink. So in my wise decision I decided to start goofing around and poke up, tickle, just be a plain old bug. As I started to bug him, he became surprised and doesn't that beautiful scented pink Yankee Candle full of hot wax go flying across the bed, landing on the husbands bare skin and my first response was "MY CLEAN SHEETS!" he looked at me and said sarcastically "Oh, I'm sorry. OW" as he pointed to the now dried pink wax on his skin. We both started to laugh, inside I cried about my clean sheets.

The Next day I was talking to a good friend and she asked what I was doing as I was breathing heavily, I told her I was changing the sheets off my bed because my husband got wax all over it. She didn't seem too impressed, so I quickly explained and she laughed. However, in that conversation I learned a neat trick how to get wax out of material.

Method
1. Heat up Iron
2. Place a towel over the wax spilled area
3. Iron over the spot on the towel
4. Remove towel, and BAM it's GONE!

Until Next time, don't play with hot wax in bed.

Gobble Gobble Goes The Wife

The Common question those like to ask is, "what did you do during your weekend?" Well I bet you never got "I went to a turkey course" before. Well, that happened...


About Two weeks prior the husband caught me as I was half asleep, not paying attention to ask me if I wanted to go to a Turkey Course with him. In my sleep filled eyes I said yes... without asking.. That was issue No. 1. 

A few days went by and it was brought up again and he told me he was excited to to do the course together... As he was explaining what this coarse would involve I stopped him abruptly as I said "What the heck did I sign up for". 

He pulled the "Honey it's bonding time". So I continued to get engaged with the idea of going to spend eight hours on a beautiful Saturday to learn about from beginning to end of safe turkey hunting to preparing and the sport of  hunting.

Saturday Morning rolled around, as I woke up to my husband poking me with a goose honker I lifted my head from the pillow at 7:30am on a Saturday and told him no coffee, no breakfast then there is no Turkey Class.. So needless to say I got breakfast in bed.. YUM! As I was sitting in bed waking up with coffee and pancakes I noticed from the side of my eye a pile of Camouflage sitting at the end of the bed, I should have thought twice about why there were so much camo staring at me, but it was too early.

As I got ready, the husband thought it was okay for him to try and dress me.. HEAD TO TOE CAMO - This wife doesn't do Camo. So I was dressed comfortably while he was in everything camo, even his boxers were camo.. I shook my head and we headed out the door. He told me it was to hide from the turkeys..serious..we weren't going hunting.. but we had to be hidden.

So, the husband was right, 90% of the class was in camo and work boots.. As the course went on, it was very interesting. The Pictures in the power point did become a little graphic for me but as the coarse went one I began to think, who in their right friggin mind would want to be covered head to toe blending in the woods, face painted sitting against a tree.. I'm sorry, Who wants to be sitting there with the possibility of getting shot by another hunter.. however that was the point of the coarse not to get hurt. Seriously thought, not this girl!

I have to ask, have you ever tried to call for a turkey? Did you know how many different callers you can get? I will always be haunted by the sound of turkey calls for the next few months as that's all I heard for a few hours straight. Maybe even longer as we have multiple turkeys around our property on a daily basis.

Did I mention, the husband one best turkey call in the novice division of the class.. now he thinks he is a turkey calling master. I haven't stopped hearing about it, even the poor cats are confused about these strange sounds.. I guess we will be counting down until the end of turkey season, the end of May can't come soon enough.

For those who are turkey hunting, please be safe and happy hunting.

Until Next time, Gobble Gobble.

Homestead Wife

xx

Pinching Those Pennies

Hello Readers,

Have you ever been tight on money, or need to put that favourtie treat back on the shelf because "you don't need it"? We now ask that a whole lot less! Let me tell you how! 

With being a one family income, this is great for us, we only purchase what we know we will use and if I have a coupon that makes the product free or under $0.75 I will purchase it and donate it.

I was raised by a single mom and we always had to be careful about our spending, at the time couponing wasn't a big thing. After the famous TLC Show "Extreme Couponing" everyone tried to coupon, but never stuck to it. 

Couponing can be hard work if you don't know what you're doing.. That was me years ago.

It's not always easy to get started, especially when my husband didn't know about couponing and wondered why I would get mad when he purchased something that I had a coupon for... I am that CRAZY coupon lady.

 

Here are my secrets on how I safe a minimum of $50.00 in coupons alone!

1. Pick your poison . Binder, envelope, ziplock bags? NO a Thirty One pouch with dividers (you can get them at Walmart too). 

2. Invest Properly. Forget Scissors, get a paper cutter - Your hands will thank you.

3. Pick your army. So many sites, so little time - you only need three websites. Get ready to bookmark these on your computer.

1. www.coupons.com (You need a printer) one visit to this site and you can save upwards of $400.00

2. www.save.ca ( You can choose to have these mailed or print on the spot)

3. www.smartcanucks.ca (great for samples, flyers, coupons and upcoming sales)

This is where you have to do the hard work - read those flyers! Almost every store will price check, this is great especially since Canada Couponing is much different then our friends in the States.

I like to go to Walmart, so I bring my flyers with pre marked products at other stores that I have coupons for* , that is key.

So with that you have a product that is reduced then a coupon. The products that you can "make money" on are items such as BBQ Sauce, Tomato Sauce, Pasta and Paper Products. 

Have any questions, please let me know and Happy Couponing!

Homestead Wife

xx

Eggs In One Basket

This was our first year hosting Easter - this year was very special for my husbands family. 

This marks one year after huge health scares for my father in law, with both my sister in laws away we pulled off the greatest surprise the Easter bunny has ever seen. After not feeling well and trying to find energy and having a husband on crutches (that story is for another time), I hosting our first Easter Dinner and had my sister in laws and their boyfriends travel up north and jump out of the closet when the In-laws arrived.

Since there were no kids at our dinner I had to step it up a notch to have the Easter spirit shine. When I think of Easter, I think of the big Easter Egg Hunt, the kind you wake up early for, where you NEED to beat your siblings and get only the best chocolates and goodies laying around. So this was a must - 52 stuffed eggs, one acre, four baskets and 8 adult I hosted "The Adult Only Hunt".

You must be thinking, whats the big deal? Well these eggs weren't just stuffed with your iconic Easter egg chocolates.. No these eggs were filled with Wine bottles, tequila, Whiskey, Lotto Tickets, Nail Polish, Scratch cards and of course a few solid Chocolate Bunnies. 

Watching the family run around the property trying to get the best eggs, was like no other Easter - seeing my mother in law running around the yard telling the "kids" that she's going to win was amazing. (Did I mention we have a very competitive family?)

The Easter celebrations didn't stop there. With Easter Bevi's for all (recipe is below), Adult Easter Baskets filled with homemade maple syrup and lavender soap, adult colouring books, chocolates, spring flower seeds and soil filled in a Terracotta pot topped with a bow. We finished the evening with the largest turkey the husband could find... ( two loafs of bread later to stuff it).

Easter Bevi

I served these in mason jars with the rim rolled in white sugar and a Peeps Bunny on the side.

In a large Container mix the following

4 cups of Watermelon Juice

3 cups of Orange Juice

1 Bottle of Champagne

1 TBSP of Cherry juice in each mason jar (drop in last)

Serve over ice and enjoy!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter and made memories that will not be forgotten but will be topped next year.

For now, it's time for a snooze and maybe some left over turkey for dinner.

Homestead Housewife 

xx

Sap To Syrup

A Waffle is like a Pancake with a Syrup Trap, and we love our Maple Syrup.

With the luxury of having over a hundred trees on our property, the husband had a great idea to try and make our own Maple Syrup. At first I was dreading this idea - If you knew my husband and I we always get these "crazy" ideas and do not like to be bored.

 26 trees tapped, three weeks later and a lot of boiling we have syrup! Ontario Grade Dark Fresh Maple Syrup.

Have you ever wondered why "real" maple syrup cost so much compared to Aunt Jemima's? Well let me tell you, for every 10 gallons of raw sap you get about one quart or so of syrup and you have to hope and pray your tree's start flowing and the weather is on your side for it. Each batch took a total of 8-10 hours of boil time in both the evaporator that we made and then the stove top that we used outside (DO NOT TRY TO BOIL IT DOWN INSIDE YOUR HOUSE).

With our first year making our own maple syrup, we will sure to be doing it again next year. However, next year we won't start two weeks late into the season...

This year our syrup batch was over 8 litres, that is a lot of syrup for a family of two, so we have been using them as gifts - another way to save a little money.  

If you are looking to give the maple syrup making a try, be sure you have the proper maple trees and do your research. Side Note: Don't let your husband use your favourite Hudson Bay Company oven mitts you got as a wedding present.. RIP my beautiful oven mitts. So if anyone wants to trade replacement mitts for 250ml of Maple Syrup please let me know!

Well, time for endless meals of Pancakes and Waffles... Until next time when I am in a Maple Syrup High.

Homestead Wife

xx

It started with soap

Today started with a day filled with errands and running around. I ended my day with a "sick" husband who used the "Honey I'm so sick.." card to get out of our daily workout. So, I resorted to the first project on the list... SOAP!

I have never ever made soap in my life, I was inspired to try since we love handmade organic soap and it can get expensive. The recipe I used did not include using Lye. I thought for my first go I would start with an extremely easy "idiot proof" recipe. 

The end product, worked great! I tried to be fancy with the two toned soap to add that extra little touch. It smells so good!

THE RECIPE

Ingredients

1 container of Shea Butter (found at your local arts and crafts store)
4 drops of purple soap Colouring
4-6 drops of Lavender Essential Oil

Method

1. Melt Shea Butter in microwave in 30 second intervals until fully melted. 
2. Separate a portion of the soap into a plastic container, add your essential oil, and set aside.
3. Add your essential oil and colouring and mix well. Work fast it will start to harden.
4. Pour purple soap mixture into a cut and clean juice container ( see picture below)
5. Wait two minutes and pour the white soap mixture on top.
6. Let sit for 1-2 hours, remove cut and wash up!

Handmade Soap will make your body sing a love song

Homestead Wife

xx