Showing category "the homestead" (Show all posts)

Summer 2013 A.C.

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Thursday, June 13, 2013, In : the homestead 
After Colt, that is.

You should see our garden. It is... well, it is...

covered in grass.

Last year I was all over that garden weeding and pruning and picking.

This year? Well... let me just say hats off to our ancestors who somehow managed their homes and gardens with 12 babies pulling on their aprons. It makes me ashamed of myself... and of my garden.

It isn't totally lost, at least. Mister has been on evening shift, which means in the mornings I can feed Colt, tuck him under Daddy's arm, and ...
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Blessings from above

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Wednesday, June 5, 2013, In : the homestead 
Last year, I didn't realize until it was too late what those nasty, purple, gooey spots on my car were. I thought they were a nuisance! It wasn't until closer inspection that I saw they were mulberries. Mmmm... mulberries... I remember my mama making mulberry cobbler out of those rich-tasting berries from the tree by the barn. Sadly, I let the berries go to waste last year except for one sandwich size Ziploc bag full.

This year, however, I was ready. I kept an eye out. Each day checking the g...
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Snow in May

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Thursday, May 30, 2013, In : the homestead 
And in Georgia, too! My nephew and I made a list last week of things we wanted to do this summer when he comes over. On that list was a snowball fight.

A snowball fight?

In summer?

In Georgia?

YES!

Holy cow. This. Was. Fun.

Like, ridiculous fun.

Like, I turned into a little kid again fun.

F. U. N.

So how do you make it snow in the summer in Georgia? We got two boxes of cornstarch and a can of cheap shaving cream. This little project cost us a whopping three bucks. It may have been the best three dolla...
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A question

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Thursday, May 23, 2013, In : the homestead 

Since Mister and I have been married my nephew has gotten to come over a few times each week during the summer. When we lived in apartments we would enjoy the pool, Callaway, and pretty-much-whatever-he-wanted-to-do. That could be tie-dyeing shirts or, like yesterday, making a lady bug house. Don't get me started on that! If it works, I'll let you in on it!

This week marked our first day together for the summer of 2013. I was a little worried, since Colt is here, that he wouldn't have as good ...
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So long, dryer...

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Saturday, May 18, 2013, In : the homestead 
No, it didn't break. I decided to take a page from my mama's playbook and let the sun and fresh air do the job. My mama always line dried our clothes (and she still hangs clothes out) way before it was the 'green' thing to do. We had a dryer, but it was meant for cold and rainy days. A few things prompted me to finally give our dryer a break:

1. The power bill. Need I say more?

2. My mama did it.

3. Why waste a perfectly good sunny day?

I don't know if it will truly make a difference, but I am an...
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Ketchup

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Thursday, May 9, 2013, In : the homestead 
Just not the kind you eat. Who knew that a mere three weeks after writing that last post, Colt would be here?! Yes, the little man was six weeks early and we were blessed to exeperience the roller coaster called the NICU.

Blessed? 
NICU?
How can those two words be in the same sentence together? 
My question is how could they not be?

We spent just shy of three weeks there and it is an experience I will never forget and one that I don't particularly know if I would want to forget. The nurses were f...
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Better late than never...

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Sunday, February 24, 2013, In : the homestead 
Oi. It's been a while. This pregnancy thing takes a lot more out of me than I realized it would. I had grand ideas that I would be the WonderWoman of pregnant women. Yeah. And while I've managed to keep doing quite a bit, it's a lot slower, a lot less thorough, and, well, a lot less than whatever I was used to 7 months ago! So, I apologize for letting my blog take a backseat. There have been a ton of things I've wanted to post about: from my Christmas projects to the bread I've been making al...
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Knock 'em dead

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Tuesday, November 20, 2012, In : the homestead 
Since finding out we were expecting, I've been paranoid about fumes. Smoke, bleach, cleaners, and bug spray. Especially bug spray. If it can KILL something and I can smell it, then what's it do to me?!

So, when our kitchen became overrun with ants this week, I was determined to find a better way to murderlize them than with Raid. The first day, we did use spray and they promptly came back the next day, marching right back to whatever it was their little antennae had found that was so tasty to ...
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Poop, banjo pickers, and turnips

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Monday, October 29, 2012, In : the homestead 
In other words, an update:

This past weekend was a busy one in front of the twin cedars. It mostly involved scooping a lot of poop. And I mean A LOT. Almost five gallons of rabbit poop, ten gallons of a beautiful hay and goat poop mixture, and a nice ten gallon bucket of chicken poop. It's amazing what you get from two pygmies, nine chickens, and four little bunnies!

Don't let that make you queasy. Poop, like rain on a garden, is a fabulous thing! When an animal is well taken care of and its di...
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Bringing my bunny back

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, In : the homestead 
You know the saying, "Got your goat." You say it when you're upset about something or when something just isn't going right... or some one plays a trick on you. My goat was had today.

Remember my post about having been on Twin Cedars for a full year now? Yeah, I've got plenty to add to that list of things I've learned... I'll save it for year two. So, next September, be ready for another list! 

Today... today... today...

Can I tell y'all about today?

It started off fantastic. Perfect really. It's...
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A year in front of the twin cedars

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Saturday, September 8, 2012, In : the homestead 
We closed on our house on August 30, 2011. I remember getting those keys and Mister and I calling our family members to tell them the news... then I remember us feeling sick. "Did we just do the right thing?" "Are we going to regret this?" "Can we handle it?" 

Most first time homeowners/newlyweds (although I don't quite see us in the newlywed category anymore) opt for a low maintenance type of dwelling. We had that option. We stared it in the face. We almost chose it. But then we saw 6 acres. ...
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Call me crazy

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Tuesday, August 28, 2012, In : the homestead 
Maybe it is crazy to do all this stuff that Mister and I have been doing. Maybe growing your own food, preserving that same food you grew, butchering your own animals, and cooking all your own meals is crazy. But if it is, I really don't want to be sane. I guess the only difference between myself and the people who think it's crazy are the things we buy at the grocery store. 

This past week we added quite a few things to the Twin Cedars. 



Thanks to a former student of mine, her mama, and their ...
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New additions and attitudes

Posted by Amateur Teacher on Saturday, August 11, 2012, In : the homestead 
AH! I can't believe I've let a whole week slip by without blogging. Truth is, this week marked the first week back to school. And, let me tell you... it. has. been. busy. So much so that, I have to admit, I have been shamefully cranky. I don't know hay it's gotten me in such a tizzy. Maybe it's that I've never had this kind of responsibility. The end of this month will be our one year anniversary of being homeowners. We jumped head first into animals, building, gardening, and preserving and t...
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About Me


Heather (Amateur Extraordinaire) I'm Heather, a twenty something that is just starting out in this whole home owning and homesteading thing. My Mister and I moved into our first home in September of 2011. It takes daily hard work to make it a place of peace and rest... I started to say peace and quiet... but if you know us, well, that just doesn't fit. Heehee! I love Jesus, Jane Austen, and Josh. My three loves I found in respective order. If you turn on an Alabama song or old country music I'll sing to the top of my lungs. I love to cook in cast iron, can food from my garden, and take care of all these little homestead critters. Those are just a few of the many things I love in this ol' world. Follow me and you are sure to find out more!

 

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