Blog

Calendars and Charts, Gettin' Those Ducks in a Row

My All-In-One Planner

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Every December, one of my favorite gifts is my shiny new planner. Yes, I said every… I always manage to con one of my gift givers into making that their Christmas gift to me because I love my planners so much. I have never been much of a phone calendar person-yes the alerts are nice but I like to have something I can open and see all at once, easily flipping back and forth between months or weeks.

I spend my winter December evenings, filling the pages with birthdays, upcoming events, work days, etc. Then I start filling in my book list and movie release dates. Last, but not least, I list my monthly homesteading tasks – my favorite part.

Before the first of each month I take out my planner and make sure everything is down that needs to be. Of course life happens and things get added and whited out, but this way I easily remember all the things that need to be done in my homestead life, work life and social life.

One thing I try to do, is to have a different color pen for each category of life. Because I didn’t start this year off thinking of our homestead as anything different than a baby hobby farm, all my homesteading activities are in light green pen, which is my social life color! I still don’t find any farm chores to be “work” so it still fits.

Dark navy is my work color, royal blue is for appointments, purple is for my list of books I’d like to read and turquoise is for the movies coming out that my husband and I would love to see. I utilize stickers as well for important events, our pets’ heart worm medication and pay day.

After I’m done filling out the dates of my calendar, tasks that have no specific dates yet go into the “Notes” section. This is also where I put the list of movies and books as they have no specific dates assigned to them either. Just whenever I get to them!

For the  weekly view in my planner, I have half hour time slots and a column for a list. Very few things go into the time slots as life on the homestead is not that structured. However, my work day hours can, as well as any special events like weddings. And I’m really OK with this arrangement… it makes me feel like I have more free time!

My system is by no means perfect, since we just officially started this homesteading adventure, but it works and helps tremendously. I’m sure as the months go on and the years pass I will tweak it here and there. Regardless, putting everything down in one place helps me simplify my life and remove unnecessary stress.

*Would you all like to see what my planner looks like each month? Let me know in the comments!*

Bushes, Free Food

Identifying a Gooseberry

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My farm’s namesake.

This site’s namesake.

A tart to sweet, green to purple berry.

Delicious.

Through the years, I’ve met few people who know what a gooseberry is. I’m no longer baffled by this as I was the first few times I met someone who had not had a gooseberry bush in the yard their entire lives. So for those of you who do not know. THIS is what a gooseberry is…

Indigenous to Missouri, the gooseberry is found most often in shaded areas, at least around our farm anyway. The Missouri Department of Conservation website confirmed that the gooseberry bush prefers dry open woods and thickets. On our own, we have found both “male” and “female” bushes, the females being those that bear fruit.

The leaf of the gooseberry has leaflets with an irregular tooth pattern that all connect centrally. Dangling by a thin stem, the small green to purple and faintly stripped berry hides beneath the leaves. Thorns or spines are also found all up and down the underbelly of the woody stems to protect the precious fruit. And guys, those things hurt. So beware.

The gooseberry has a tart to sweet taste depending on when it is picked. If you’ve ever had rhubarb I liken the small green berries to the tart taste of rhubarb in that they need to be sweetened or have another fruit added. On the other hand, the deep purple berry is very sweet to the taste. I personally prefer a mixture of ripeness in my gooseberries as it means less sugar or no requirement of other fruits!

Aside from the edible berry, the leaves can be consumed as well. This was actually not something I knew until I read the MDC’s “Wild Edibles of Missouri.” They can be used as an addition to a spring or summer salad or can be dried for approximately 3 months to be used as tea.

Another interesting fact I learned from “Wild Edibles of Missouri,” is that the gooseberry is also known as the “feverberry.” Apparently, if you crush the berries and add 1 teaspoon of them to a cup of hot water it has some antipyretic properties. This means it can reduce fevers! I don’t know about you but I love me some natural alternatives.

Budget, Decluttering and Simplifying, Gettin' Those Ducks in a Row, Readings, The Piggy Bank

Why I Decluttered My Phone

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Wedding Photo Credit: Devon Garton Photography

After reading the books Grace Not Perfection and A Simplified Life last December, I simplified many areas of my life, including my phone. Those bookss were my inspiration to find peace in simplification. However, this past month, of the biggest distractions I’ve had to being productive, to spending true quality time with my family and to getting all my homesteady reading accomplished, has been my phone. I find that I’m frustrated with myself for allowing this to happen again.

Even though I once again found my phone cluttered with apps that aren’t necessary, I still had used the principles I’d learned from the books when installing them. This included turning off notifications and moving necessary apps I did not frequently use away from the home screen. I turned off notifications for everything but phone calls and texts, and Emily Ley even recommends turning off texts too!

The biggest time suck? Farmville 2. Ya’ll, for a homesteader that doesn’t have her homestead established yet that game is addicting. Yes, I know it’s not accurate at all and there are many other more productive things I could be doing, but that didn’t stop me from playing while walking around in the yard with my husband and our pups just yesterday. I have never been that person before. And I didn’t like it.

So I changed it. My tech was starting to take away from my family time and my productivity. Today, before writing this article, I went through my phone and carefully dissected each app. Do I use it often? Do I actually need to use it often?

The first thing that went was Farmville. Next, I found myself with 6 photo apps, when I only use the camera and 3 others from time to time. So the extras were quickly trashed. There were more shopping apps on my phone than I’ve ever had as well. Not only are we building a house and need to save money, but I also only use Amazon and Ebates regularly. So out the others went.

Wedding Photo Credit: Devon Garton Photography

So on and so forth I went until all the fluff was gone. I even deleted my payment information from Amazon to make it less convenient to purchase items I may not need. Things with frequent little red notification bubbles (even though alerts were turned off) went to the third page where I could no longer see them. Yes, that’s right, I said THIRD. Third, because I put all the apps I use daily, or at least weekly, on the second page.

My home page? It is reserved for me to rotate favorite photos of my husband and I. It is reserved for what should be most important, and what I’m going to make sure is.

Wedding Photo Credit: Devon Garton Photography
Flower Garden, Green Thumb, Saving Money, The Piggy Bank, Vegetable and Herb

Turning Garbage into Gold

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You know that stinky trash can or garbage disposal you have in your kitchen? What If I told you all that stinky garbage could be turned into gold? Or at least something pretty close to it in a homesteader or farmer’s eyes.

I’m talking about composting folks.

Our modern society is an expert at creating waste; our eyes are too big for our stomachs, we are materialistic and we buy and toss things quicker than the trash truck can remove them. So much of that waste could be used to make something that gives life. So why not turn the waste into something better?

Each time we food prep, each time we have leftovers, each time a fruit or vegetable goes bad it goes into a bucket. Every day that bucket is taken outside and dumped into a 4’x4′ metal basket. And do you know what is trickling out of the bottom of that metal basket? Gold.

There are also other “wastes” you could put in your gold making bin. I’m talking poop folks. Chicken, horse and cow manure specifically. All are great additives to a compost pile or bin and help the waste break down into fertilized soil quicker.

To help your compost further, it is important to keep it wet and turn it frequently. Our current metal basket system makes this a difficult task though. We are eventually going to make a new composting system, which I will share on here when finished, that can be managed easier. I would prefer to have something that I can continuously turn so that the compost turns to usable soil more quickly.

To sum up… the things that we add to our compost bins:

-Chicken manure

-Cow Manure

-Horse Manure

-Vegetable Scraps

-Fruit Scraps

-Egg Sells

-Coffee Grinds

-Tea Bags

-Weeds

-Newspaper-in small pieces

-Old Animal bedding

-Wood Ash

-Leftovers

I’m sure there are other things out there we can toss in (I definitely need to do more research on the topic), but here’s a start. The possibilities are endless. AND you get free fertilized garden soil out of the deal!

Green Thumb, Vegetable and Herb

Herb Harvest

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I like to have a steady supply of herbs in my terracotta garden as long as possible. To achieve this without constant reseeding or succession planting, I harvest the tops of my herbs throughout the summer and fall season. The herbs should continue to grow as long as they are not allowed to flower.

The key to this is to monitor your herb garden daily, if not twice a day, for any sign of budding. Those that I’ve found to bloom (or bolt) quicker than others are Dill, Basil, Cilantro and Summer Savory. I highly recommend that you keep a close eye on those this growing season. In fact, these are the herbs I would monitor twice daily after they get above 6 inches in height.

Personally, my Sage, Thyme, and Oregano did not begin to bud until the end of early fall. Thus, I did not have to worry much about harvesting anything from those aside from what I needed for a meal any given day. This timing couldn’t be more perfect.

For my last and final herb harvest, I wait until the weather cools and the danger of frost looms. At that time, my husband and I will go down the line of terracotta pots with scissors and enough bags in hand for each individual herb. We cut each perennial approximately 2-3 inches from the ground, careful to still keep a few leaves on each sprig or stock in the pot. The annuals we cut flush with the bottom.

After depositing the herbs in their individual bags in our kitchen, we move all the terracotta pots into the greenhouse with the perennials under drip spouts. This way the herbs will get water all winter long whenever the yard hydrant that particular hose is connected to, is turned on. This way, when you check your perennial herbs in the spring, you should have some fresh green sprouts to welcome you.

I mentioned in my prior herb post, the reason I chose terracotta pots was to ultimately be able to bring them in our house during the winter. Since we are currently not in our own home, they go to the greenhouse as mentioned above. When our own house is finished, they will come indoors. If this is the method you employ, just continue the cycle of summer harvesting through the winter! Fresh herbs all year long!