Expanding the Homestead

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Momzoo

This is a picture of more than just dirt, this is our super special homemade compost and it is going to help us grow beautiful fruits and vegetables next year.

Dadzoo has been carefully tending our little pile of composting material and worms this summer, watering it once a week and turning everything over. This is our best compost year yet!

Part of being a Homesteader is getting excited over a pile of compost.

The picture below is of our side yard, it is the largest square footage of yard we have, not including the front. In the spring we are planning on adding 7 garden boxes, about 300 square feet.

We will be using as much compost as we can cook over the winter to fill the boxes, unfortunately compost cooks slower when it is freezing outside….something about the worms getting cold and digging deep.

Along the north and south boarders of out property we had grass growing right to the line. The key work here is “had”. A few weeks ago Dadzoo killed about the three foot strip along each side.

Thanks to the loan of a tiller from a good neighbor we were able to till under the dead grass and work on preparing the new beds.

We also tore up my herb garden that never really produced herbs, only weeds and are going to plant a fruit tree. We haven’t decided on the tree yet we are still thinking about it. We wanted to maybe plant a pear, then learned that a pear tree needs a close pollinator, and I don’t really want to plant another pear tree. I need to find out if any of the neighbors have pears….

These are the garden boxes that were removed from the herb/weed garden awaiting their new home.

We are adding a good layer of compost over the tilled up grass and then we will till it all in together again. In the spring we will add even more compost before we plant. The soil where I live is poor and requires a lot of work, that is why I love my raised beds so much, I just make my own soil.

We are going to plant grapes, raspberries and black berries to create a natural hedge, that will not only look pretty, give us some privacy, but will also produce food.

In urban homesteading it is all about blooming where you are planted.

Dadzoo

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Momzoo

Of all the things I prattle on about, Dadzoo only gets mentioned sometimes. Funny thing, I talk about all the stuff that is the most important to me, and yet the person I love the most has yet to be the subject of a post. Maybe it is because I love him so much and he is so dear to me I keep him close. Finding the words to express my love and admiration for him seem daunting, I could never truly express the way I feel about him.

This is Dadzoo, my guy. 12 years ago we met and after a whirl wind 2 weeks we were engaged. I remember the night I got down on my knees and asked my Heavenly Father if he was the one I should marry. The answer was so clear to me, I never looked back since and my life has been abundantly blessed. Four months later we were married and 6 weeks after that I became pregnant with our first daughter.

Dadzoo is a varied man, he does many things and has many interests, most of those involve church, family and local politics. He doesn’t golf, hike or bike, he reads, develops web sites, studies politics and plays with our kids. He would probably describe himself as a boring computer geek, but he is so much more.

He follows a long with all my hair-brained ideas and embraces the thing that are important to me. He understands my need to create and nurture and grow and learn.

Life hasn’t always been peaches and cream for us. We have had many ups and downs, but through it all Dadzoo has always loved me. He has been through some very hard time and the last few years have been big years of growth for him. It has been wonderful watching him become the person he is now, and I love him all the more for it.

Chit-chat

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Momzoo

I love to read the comments that are left on my blog. Sometimes I want to talk back but I don’t really know if I should do so in the comment section or not. So I thought I would make a post dedicated to my last post’s comment section. I would like to chit-chat with you a bit. 😉

Mrs. Mordecai said: Wow, thanks so much for sharing all this. With twotiny children, including a nursing baby, sometimes it seems that a real schedule is only a dream, but I hope I can have something like this someday.

You will someday, I promise. You are way more organized that I ever was when I just had my two oldest. When I had little babies (and I had them fast my first two are 13 months apart) my schedule was something like this: Get up, eat breakfast, get everyone dressed, do chores, eat lunch, nap time, pick up, dinner, bed. I have changed a lot over the years.

Lisa said: how do you do laundry on Monday?!! on Monday i am digging out of the mess that has happened on Sunday. i would like to know…when do you do general picking up? or are your kids/husband good about picking up after themselves?
(BTW Lisa, I really need an invite to your blog, if that would be alright with you…aimee@prosphotos.com)

Monday, well that was the day my Mom always did it, so it just seemed natural for me. Monday is kind of a general “digging” out day for me, laundry really doesn’t take that much time during the day. First thing in the morning I sort laundry in my bedroom (my laundry “room” is more like a large closet) and I just start going. The biggest thing is to keep on top of it, as soon as a load is washed it goes either on the line or in the drier depending on the time of year, once it is dry it gets piled in a chair in the living room waiting to be folded later that night. That leaves me plenty of time while things are washing and drying to dig out! To be perfectly honest, the socks pretty much never get folded and there are a lot of times I have a straggler load to do the next day. It sure makes the rest of the week nice to not have to worry about laundry!

As for general picking up, most of that is taken care of by the kids when they “do their stewardships”. There are two scheduled times to pick them up, and if the house gets really messy then I just stop everyone and we check stewardships, that is how the house stays picked up (as much as a house with 5 kids realistically can) I am mainly in charge of the kitchen area, I take care of that when the kids are busy doing their school work, since there class room is at the kitchen table, it is easy to help with math and load the dishwasher.

Does that answer your questions?

Jessica said: You’re nice to fold laundry – I already make my kids fold laundry.I hope to one day have a scheduled date night! It’s been interesting to really think over my scheduling so as always: “thanks for posting!”

Jessica, you are smarter than I am. I like my kids to do socks and stuff, but I forget to have them do it and, well, that is just something I let go! LOL! As for a scheduled date night, Dadzoo and I have been doing that since our first baby was born (almost 11 years ago). We have only recently started to “go out” on occasion since we have older kids. Typically, I will feed the kids something quick and easy then send them to bed, or let them have a “sleep over”, where they pick a bedroom and are allowed to watch movies, play games or whatever until late, as long as they don’t bug the parents. Dadzoo and I will either get take-out or cook something special and have dinner together and watch a movie. It is simple, can be as inexpensive as you want, and it sure recharges those Mommy batteries. I really look forward to my Friday nights, my favorite is to get take-out and enjoy a yummy meal that I don’t have to cook or clean up after!

My Personal Schedule…sort of

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Momzoo

As for my own personal schedule, it is mostly in my head. I don’t have a pretty typed up piece of paper to show you all, it has good and bad points, someday I would like to type it all up and carry a blackberry and all the jazz, but for right now it isn’t happening.

On thinking about how I schedule my time I came to the conclusion that I have three different schedules that run my life; daily, weekly and seasonally. I will go over all three and if there are any questions please ask.

Daily: (This ties in very closely to my kids daily schedules and our homeschooling)

6:30– get up (groan) cook breakfast and do any needed ironing for the day
7:00-Breakfast and family devotional (Dadzoo takes care of this)
7:30-get dressed, make-up, hair, make bed (I hit that about 80% of the time) and keep kids on task.
8:30– Walk punk #3 to the bus while the others are finishing up on stewardships. This is my special time with her and on the way home, I get my special quiet time.
9:00-finish breakfast dishes, start any projects that need to be done that day and get ready for school
9:30 School, I teach the lesson then get the girls set up with their assignments and then I will go and finish any cleaning that needs to be done or any other projects.
11:30 lunch, take punk #4 to the bus, we all go, it is a fun little walk for the whole group.
1:00 start up school again, lay down for a tiny nap if needed do misc chores
4:00 everybody home from school, start dinner
6:00 dinner and evening schedule
9:00 to bedtime, finish up any projects, get ready for breakfast, make lunches and other misc stuff

Weekly Schedule

Monday: laundry, I do this all day, I try not to schedule any other activities on Monday. My goal is to get it all done and folded so Tuesday morning the kids can put their clothes away. I get it done about 90% of the time if I stay on top of it all day. In the evening I will put on a movie and fold the clothes, I rather enjoy this, quietly folding. There are weeks when this doesn’t get done, for instance last week I was canning tomatoes and that took all my extra time and attention, the laundry got washed, but my poor family had to paw through a pile of clean clothes all week. I am planning on making it up today.

Tuesday: This day is a free day where I can either take it slowly or work on a project that needs to be done. This week for instance I am going to be baking bread. I am out of bread and there is nothing on the calender so I will bake like a mad woman and fill my freezer for the next two weeks.

Wednesday: I cut hair in the afternoon. Preparing for the afternoon, while homeschooling, then having my afternoon booked pretty much does it for me, Wednesday’s are exhausting days.

Thursday: Same as Tuesday

Friday: Cleaning day and Date Night. Homeschooling on Friday is more relaxed, the girls help in the morning, I call it “Life Skills”. My 10 year old can clean the bathroom, tub, toilets and floor and does a wonderful job. My 9 year old cleans the living room, dusting, vacuuming and polishing. While they are doing that I clean my bedroom (change sheets), my bathroom and Baby Boy’s room. We break around noon for lunch and a run to the bus stop. Then we do Science and Art, when we are done with that the girls have free time while I start on the kitchen. When the younger girls get home from school they all clean their bedrooms. If the kids are helpful and cooperative they get to have a “sleep over” and stay up late while Momzoo and Dadzoo have a date night.

Saturday: Yard work and outside chores.

Sunday: Rest

Seasonal Schedule:

This is more flexible, but keeping this in mind I can plan my weeks accordingly. If I know that in September I need to can Tomatoes, Apple and raspberries, I can keep my schedule a little more open. Same goes for the Springtime, there is a lot of work getting the gardens ready and I need to keep my Saturdays open. Spring and Fall are by far my busiest times.

Winter: I like to hunker down and keep things as simple as possible. This can be a challenge during the Christmas season, and I try to keep on top of things as much as I can and make December smooth and simple. In January and February if I have potatoes left over I will can them. February I start planing the garden and order seeds.

Spring: As soon as I can I get out into the garden and start cleaning up and working the soil, prep the garden boxes for spring veggies and plant. March I plant peas and lettuces; April, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions; May all the summer veggies get put in. There is a lot of cleaning and prep work to do, it keeps our Saturday’s filled. I also start looking for strawberries on sale so I can get some jam made.

Summer: I try to keep summertime as relaxed as possible.

Fall: Is a busy time for me. I do all sorts of canning and food preserving. In September after the kids are settled in school I start my canning. I do Tomatoes, Apple and Raspberries and make soap. We also put the garden to bed for the winter. There are potatoes (most years…long story, but there aren’t any this year) and onions to dig, carrots to cover, old beans and peas to pull up and feed to the chicken or compost. Garlic to plant, flowers to pull up and this year we are preparing new beds for raspberries and grapes. Busy, busy time, but I sure love the feeling of preparing to hunker down for the winter. So when plannig my week I need to keep these seasonal chores in mind and not over schedule myself.

So there you have it, for what it is worth, my schedules.