The Big White Farmhouse

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For the past few days, I’ve been online, watching the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene.  So many people have lost everything and millions will be without electricity for weeks.  It’s so sad and heartbreaking.  In times like these, I can’t help but think that just because we have abundant technology at our fingertips doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn “the old ways” too.  If this situation were to happen to us, would we know how to survive without our daily luxuries?

I once heard someone explain that if a skill is never taught, a society will completely forget how to do that skill within three generations.  And this doesn’t have to apply to nineteenth century habits…it could simply be remembering how people lived in the 1940’s (like Grandma Donna likes to practice)!  This is a silly but poignant example: we have a backup camera on our car, but do we remember how to reverse without it?

Below is my working list of skills I’d like to learn, strengthen or pass on to my children.  What would be on yours?

• how to identify wild plants (which are poisonous and which are edible?)
• how to identify scat (important to know what kind of wild animal you’re dealing with!)
• basic carpentry and home repair
• reading a paper map
• sewing and mending clothing
• simple car repair
• how to grow food and then use or save that food intentionally (canning, drying, etc)
• writing and reading in cursive

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ a week of RAIN.  We were thankfully too far north to feel the worst effects of the hurricane, but it’s still been a lot to handle.  No flooding, but there is mush and mud everywhere.

+ completing the last broiler processing of the season.  Due to weather and scheduling conflicts, we decided to get it done all in one day (vs. our usual two) and took up the offer from a farmer friend to use his covered shelter and machines.  (This was huge because we usually process in our backyard and it’s just a mess right now – see above!)  It took a bit of logistical planning to bring over our birds and supplies, but we got it done!  175 birds makes for a long day, but I’m so thankful for a sunny day, my hard-working family and a full chicken freezer.

+ trying a three week on/one week off grocery shopping experiment.  I’ve been consistently going over my weekly budget (despite my best intentions!) so hoping this will help.  We’ll still need milk and possibly produce, but I’m hoping I can make our pantry stretch during that fourth week.

+ another week plodding along with the Weather the Storm Challenge.  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy apples, yogurt and tortillas on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (pasta and pizza sauce)
• made vanilla granola to eat with the yogurt above
• sold eggs to friends
• cooked dried pinto beans and used those to make refried beans
• paid two bills by check to avoid the online convenience fees
• made english muffin bread twice
• restocked my “bag to hold all the bags” to remind myself to use them
• made beef stew using my homemade beef broth and various veggies in the fridge
• made elderberry syrup and froze into ice cubes (time to strengthen my immune system again)

+ selling four unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: one shirt, a scarf and two books.  After shipping and fees, I made $7.46!  Reselling went on the back burner, so a really slow week.

Reading //

• The Flavors of Faux History: Preparing for the Collapse of Knowledge from Peco and Ruth Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed // Another thoughtful post from the Gaskovskis and another book list to chip away at!
• A Reflection on the Virtue of Perseverance from Rev. M. McDonnell at Saint Benedict Center // Great examples here.  I liked this story:

Timour, the celebrated Tartar warrior, after a series of the most brilliant victories, was at length conquered and made captive. Though confined in a prison, whose massive walls and thick iron bars discouraged every attempt to escape, he still strove at each chink and crevice to find some way of escape. At length weary and dispirited, he sat down in a corner of his gloomy prison and almost gave himself up to despair. While brooding over his sorrows, an ant with a piece of wood twice as large as itself attracted his attention; the insect seemed determined to ascend the perpendicular face of the wall and made several attempts to affect it. But after reaching a little elevation it came to the jutting angle of a stone and fell backward to the floor. But again, again and again the attempt was renewed; the prisoner watched the struggles of the insect, and in the interest he forgot his own condition. The ant persevered and at the sixteenth trial surmounted the obstacle. Timour sprang to his feet, exclaiming: “I will never despair, perseverance conquers!”

• How We Built A-Frame Chicken Tractors To Protect Our Hens from Green Willow Homestead // Always planning and preparing for next year.

New Additions to The List // 

• The Natural World of Winnie-The-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood by Kathryn Aalto
• Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant (the first in an eleven-book series)
• A Bitter Truth (Bess Crawford #3) by Charles Todd

Watching/Listening //

• MASSIVE Meal Prep for a Senior! A New Mix & Match Menu to Stock Her Freezer with Easy Meals! from Dollar Tree Dinners // This got me thinking about ways I could stock my fridge and freezers too.
• Fr. Tom Shepanzyk | The Effects of Communism from Christendom College // Excellent.
• How To Reverse a Cavity at Home | Cure Tooth Decay from Dr. Ellie Phillips // This video randomly appeared on my Youtube recommendations…very interesting.

Loving //

• Ghirardelli White Chocolate Caramel // An impulse buy from last week’s birthday shopping spree.  A yummy treat.
• this idea for homemade vanilla extract // Now to find a source for vanilla beans!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

I knew it would happen eventually.  I’ve been burning that proverbial candle at both ends for awhile now and I finally hit the wall mid-week.  Thankfully, a two-day forced rest helped immensely and I was able to rally enough to celebrate birthdays by the weekend.

All that to say, I had planned to write about my thoughts from an article I read titled, “What Pope John Paul II can teach us about moving beyond fear” this week.  Being sick, that never came to fruition but I hope you’ll still read it and find encouragement like I did.

I plead with you–never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid. – JPII

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ celebrating birthdays!  I have two children whose birthdays are five days apart and they wanted to celebrate together.  My husband and I took them on a “shopping spree” to a few stores and they found a handful of great treasures.  We finished up with lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and then had cheesecake at home.  A great day.

+ continued diligence with my Weather the Storm Challenge.  I felt a little discouraged as this work feels somewhat inconsequential, but I know it’s building the virtues of perseverance and patience…so we keep going!  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy peaches, applesauce and shampoo on sale
• purchased five canned goods to put back for winter (diced tomatoes – also on sale)
• made cinnamon applesauce muffins using some of that applesauce above
• sold eggs to friends
• started air drying about a third of our laundry loads (which should save a tiny bit on our electricity bill)
• used a spatula to get the last bit of peanut butter out of the jar
• made english muffin bread twice
• picked tomatoes from my dying plants to throw to the chickens
• accepted two packs of fresh slider buns from my son’s work (delicious and free!)
• made more chicken broth, using up the last of the celery/carrots/onion in the fridge
• purchased next year’s birthday wrapping paper on clearance

+ selling fifteen unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: six books, five pieces of clothing and four dyslexia workbooks.  After shipping and fees, I made $149.31!

Reading //

• “Screen Sober” from Meredith Hinds at Still Today // “That said, ‘it is lawful to amuse yourself…’ but what are the limits? Discerning that means contemplating the difference between ‘doing the thing’ and ‘caring for it.’ And a helpful question to me in that line of thought is: are the stories I’m watching getting in the way of the stories I want to live?“
• Finding The Seam: How Small Farmers Can Thrive from Lenny Wells at Front Porch Republic // “But one can still be a farmer and care for the land without relying solely on the business of farming to support a family. In fact, most of them do. As of 2022, around 84% of farm households have off-farm income. Some would call what I’ve described above as a hobby farmer. I don’t. The fact of the matter is that if the average person wants to farm nowadays, they need an off-farm income.”
• The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America by T.H. Watkins // Really interesting so far.  One quote:

If the politicians and the pundits felt confused, others felt betrayed.  Perhaps the most fully deceived were those hostages to a middle-class dream gone bad – salesmen, promoters, businessmen, brokers, boosters, middle-management executives, Rotarians, Lions, Toastmasters.  They had all played by the rules, had joined enthusiastically in the great game of consumerism and limitless potential.  Now there was nothing to sell, nothing to boost, nothing to dream on.  “The kind of readjustment they are called upon to make is heroic,” Episcopal Bishop John Paul Jones observed in the pages of the Survey Graphic in 1933.  “Vast multitudes of them have lost financial security forever.  In bewilderment and bitterness they will seek a sign of hope, and no sign will be given.  Some will give up and end it all, but a great majority will go on living some kind of broken and frustrated lives.” (p.54)

New Additions to The List // 

• The Overstory by Richard Powers

Watching/Listening //

• How to Declutter your ENTIRE Home in 30 Days! from Clutterbug // Thinking about jumping in on this challenge soon.
• I tried “Swedish Death Cleaning” and it CHANGED EVERYTHING! from That Awkward Mom

Loving //

• this homeopathic cold medicine // My go-to when I’m going downhill.
• this Vitamin C tea // A new product in my wellness arsenal – I liked it a lot!
• the Megan Follows version of Anne of Green Gables // I bought this for my daughter and she loves it as much as I do.  SO good.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Our home looks like a construction site right now.  As time allows, we’ve been working as a family to remove the wall texture in the living room and it’s been quite the project!  Furniture has been crammed into the middle of the room, lamps and artwork are hanging out in other spaces and watch your step!  Step stools and trash bags and putty knives of all sizes are everywhere.  We’ve done this kind of slow and steady work with the farm and even though we’re living in organized chaos, it is so fun and satisfying to have the same experience inside.

Doing the renovation ourselves brings me back to 2008ish and that period of the Great Recession.  I was a newly married, young mother of very young children.  As a family just starting out on one income, we didn’t have much money and I was so inspired by the surge of DIY projects and money-saving ideas on the internet.  Sadly, as the economy recovered, a rise in fast consumerism occurred and those do-it-yourself tutorials seemed to fade out of popularity.  And what a shame!  There’s something about doing diligent work yourself, learning new skills and trying new things, that just can’t be compared!  And that feeling of pride in a job well done?  Priceless.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ continuing on with the Weather the Storm Challenge.  (As a reminder, the goals of this challenge are to reduce debt, add to our food storage and save money.)  The biggest change I’m seeing may not be the vast amounts of money I’m saving (I wish!) but the confidence it is creating.  I’m constantly thinking of new things to try, new ways to stretch what we have.  It’s intoxicating and exciting!  Anyway, this week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy grapes, tuna, and panko on sale
• used a coupon to try a new tikka masala sauce kit for free! (I saved $5.50)
• purchased five canned goods to put back for winter (mixed vegetables for chicken pot pies)
• sold eggs and chicken to friends
• made beef bone broth for the first time
• froze that broth into Souper Cubes (to stockpile for beef stew and french onion soup)
• found a sweatshirt for my son in the hand-me-down bins
• used up a free laundry detergent sample
• made english muffin bread
• learned from my son how to cut up a whole chicken into parts (he works at a farm and is a pro)
• made chicken broth from those carcasses (I’m on a roll!)
• listed a few items on ebay/Poshmark/Pango

+ selling eleven unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: seven books, one textbook and three pieces of clothing.  After shipping and fees, I made $91.35!

Reading //

• How Many People do we Need in Our Lives? from Edwin Leap at Life and Limb // “We all need connection. We need our own clans. Our own groups. Our own churches or synagogues, mosques or temples. We need deep relationship. These things can go a long way towards helping and comforting the lonely. They can make hard times better, hopelessness hopeful. They can protect against danger, hunger, disease and abuse by simply showing up and standing by those who are frail and powerless.”
• No, you cannot have it all from Jim Dalrymple at Nuclear Meltdown // “…you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be a self-centered individualist right up until the moment you need people. By that time the trade-off is made, the deal is done.”
• The Mother’s Gauntlet from Lane Scott at The American Mind // “One might object to the idea that homemaking requires an almost superhuman amount of self-governance. After all, isn’t it mostly about keeping the kids alive, fed, and your home kind of running on a basic level? That can’t be that hard. Yet it is precisely because the standards imposed externally are so low that the job can be so unsatisfying. The stay-at-home mom unconsciously applies her own standard, above and outside of the rest of society. Despite any protestations to the contrary, she knows her job demands more than subsistence. Her household has set aside the life of an entire adult, and all the income and aspirations she could have chased, so that she can raise the children. That sacrifice demands a thriving family, not a family that simply survives. The stakes are unbelievably high.”  Interesting thoughts here.
• Forming Human Persons in a Digital Age from Shannon Donald at Nota Bene // “I sometimes wish I could roll back the clock and do things differently. I like to think I would have kept digital technology out of my children’s lives for much longer, and that I would have endeavored sooner to break free from my own digital chains. But we can only ever learn and move forward, striving to become a little more human every day.”
• ‘Art Will Touch Lives’: An Aging Farmer Adds a New Dimension to his Ministry from Max Heine at Front Porch Republic // What a fascinating person.
• the comments under Grandma Donna’s The Bumpy Budget post // I sometimes feel like I have more in common with older retirees than I do my own generation.  They tend to avoid debt and are more content to live within their means without all of the unnecessary luxuries.  To read about their struggles in this economy both buoys me (we’re not alone!) and leaves me so, so sad.  God help us all.

New Additions to The List // 

• Coming Up for Air by George Orwell
• Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
• None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

Watching/Listening //

• Millennial Stone Cleaner // I’ve been enjoying this Youtube channel.  This is the first video in a series where he restores and conserves an abandoned cemetery in Des Moines.

Loving //

• You Can Draw in 30 Days // My daughter is going through this book in school and really likes it.
• these “Save By Numbers” savings challenges // I just printed out the Donut Sloth.  If I can complete it, I’ll have saved $2,778!