This Is Why I've Been An Absentee Blogger...

Little Farm Confections

A friend and I have been baking our aprons off and earning a little extra cash.  It's been crazy and fun all at the same time.  I'll be back one of these days, I promise.  I miss blogging.

All those ideas are actually out of my head on paper because it seems like it might be a bit late for them this year...  :)

(The words "Little Farm Confections" above are a link, by the way...)

Tell Your Time - Just What I Needed

Lately it seems the prayer most often escaping my lips is "Lord, help find the time to get this all done!   Please!"  I look at all the people and things vying for a chunk of my time - all of which seem to be good, if not great - and have no clue how to make it all happen.

Something has to give.  Is sleep really that important?

Over the years, I've read several time management books, but with way things have been going lately, I needed another shot in the arm.  A BIG shot in the arm!

Enter Tell Your Time,  a short (20 minutes to read), to-the-point and right on book about breaking down your to do list into what really matters.  I'd forgotten that I really can decided what is non-negotiable in my life and in the life of our family!  It was so great to find a time management tool that is user friendly (worksheets included) and doesn't require hours to figure out and implement.

I can "tell" my time what to do and make it work for the joy of myself, my family and others - all to the glory of God!

Check it out!

Fruit Fly Trap - Cheap and Chemical Free!

Our homemade fruit fly trap. 

 Isn't it gross?  Can you see all those little buggers in there?

At least they aren't in my kitchen anymore!

I hesitated posting this because I'm basically admitting we've got bugs all over the kitchen here on the Little Farm.  It makes me seem like a pretty poor housekeeper...but here it is anyway.

We've got fruit flies.  In a pretty big way.  Ugh.  I hate these things. 

Every so often throughout the year, it seems we get a few fruit flies here and there, but not in August.  In August, when the weather is warm and we've got garden produce all over the kitchen and back porch, the things just seem to swarm.  Especially, when I've been out of town for a few days and one of the sons who was left behind, cuts off half of a banana and leaves the other sitting on the counter.  Um...not good anytime during the year, but fruit fly season it means a fruit fly convention.

A couple of years ago in August, while I was elbow deep in canning tomatoes, the fruit flies were driving me crazy.  I actually had a couple of kids come into the kitchen and try to swat them.  FYI- this doesn't work at all, but it is fun to watch.

When swatting didn't work, I turned to my good friend Google.  A quick search for "fruit fly traps" turned up my solution.  I didn't want something which used chemicals since the trap was going to obviously be in the kitchen around food and Young'uns.  Thankfully, the trap I found was chemical free, cheap and I could make it myself.  Music to my frugal, do-it-yourself ears.

So, just in case you've got a few of these little things driving you to distraction at your house, here's how to make your very own Fruit Fly Trap.

This photo was taken before we put some apple into the jar.

The shot above has the apple pieces.

Materials Needed:
-glass or jar of some sort
-sheet of paper (I used some from the recylcing)
-apple cider vinegar
-piece of fruit - apple or banana work best

What to Do:
Pour about an inch of vinegar into your glass or jar.  Place a couple of pieces of fruit in also.  Make your sheet of paper into a funnel and tape it in place.  Making the funnel is the hardest part of this whole deal.  You want the bottom opening to be large enough for a fly to crawl into, but small enough that it's hard for them to figure out how to fly back out.  The top of the funnel needs to be large enough to rest on the top rim of the glass and keep the bottom of the funnel about an inch or so above the vinegar and fruit in the glass.  Make sense?

Don't feel bad if it takes you a whole lot of attempts at making the funnel.  I've been there.  If you get really frustrated at making it.  Just call in one of your sons and they'll whip out a funnel that fits the glass perfectly in about 10 seconds. 

Once the funnel is made, set it into the glass and put the whole thing on your counter or wherever the flies congregate the most.  Let it set for a few hours and then be amazed!  Your jar will be full of the little pests.  It's exciting and gross all at once.  My kids always like to look at them.

Obviously, to get rid of the flies in your glass you don't want to take out the funnel in the house.  We take it outside - far far away from the back door - and pull out the funnel.  (Word to the wise - make sure you are VERY specific in these instructions if you let one of your kids take the glass outside to release the flies.  I know this from experience.)  The vinegar, fruit and funnel can be used several times.

Happy Hunting!

Knocking Things Off the To Do List

I've been on a a bit of a blogging break...Zucchini Week was exhausting. 

Actually, my To Do List had some items on it which I'd procrastinated doing for quite a while.  Part of my reasoning was that I didn't have time...well, I did if I stayed off the computer.  Thus, the lack of posts over the past week.  I didn't accomplish everything, but the list is lots shorter now.

School planning is still on the list to be done over the course of the next couple of weeks.  Needless to say, homeschooling will be on my mind so you can guess the topics of some upcoming posts.

The garden is starting to crank some things out, too.  So, they'll be some more veggies posts, too.

Thanks for sticking around

Zucchini Week - An Ode to Zucchini

There is even poetry about these amazing things!

An Ode to Zucchini

It was an an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny

silver striped green zucchini.

While we slumbered, what went wrong?

Overnight it's two feet long!

 

From http://muumsmusings.blogspot.com/2009/08/zucchini-week-begins-and-garden.html

Kombucha...It's What's Brewing on the Farm

I'm a home brewer.  Not a home brewer of the traditional home brew type, much to the Big Guy's dismay.  But a home brewer all the same.  We're brewing kombucha here on the Farm.

Komb-whatcha, you ask?  Kombucha.  Here's the dictionary definition:

(kŏm'bōō'chä')
n. A lightly sparkling beverage made by fermenting black or green tea and sugar with a culture of various bacteria and yeasts.

I first read about kombucha in a catalog from the Bulk Herb Store.  For some reason, I found it intriguing.  It sounded like an interesting experiment - taking two regular everyday things like tea and sugar, combine them with some mysterious bacteria and yeasts and get something new, supposedly yummy and maybe even good for us.  Hmmmmm...

Kombucha popped up in my other readings online and in Nourishing Traditions.  It seems lots of folks find the drink helps with any number of ailments from skin problems like acne to cancer.  I was mostly interested in kombucha's probiotic qualities and the claims that it helps give some increased energy (for some reason a bit more energy is always something I'm looking for).

I was game to give kombucha a try, but there was a catch.  You can't just brew some tea, add some sugar, throw in some yeast and, viola, get some kombucha.  You've got to have special bacteria and yeast; you've got to have a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) or mother or mushroom as they're also called.  To be honest, I'm not all sure what magical bacteria in a SCOBY, I'm just trusting the system on this one.  So when I "overheard" a conversation between friends on facebook regarding SCOBYs, I butted in.  Isn't facebook great?  It's the one place in the world where it's not impolite to interrupt a conversation.

One of the said friends graciously agreed to share one of her SCOBYs with me.  Every time a batch of kombucha is brewed, a new SCOBY or "baby" is produced.  Isn't that amazing?  Thankfully, this friend has a great blog, Common Sense Homesteading, which had all the directions I needed to get my home brewing experiment going.  She also has helpful explanations about the science of what's happening during the whole process.  If you are interested is how to make kombucha and see some great photos, go here.  She's said it much better than I ever could and, besides, my camera is broken so I've got no photos.

I gathered my materials and off we went a brewing.  Ten days later, we drank our first kombucha and it was pretty good.  The kids aren't big fans, but the Big Guy and I have been drinking some everyday since.

Currently, our fourth batch of kombucha is sitting on our kitchen counter.  Let me say that the mother and baby (the old SCOBY and the newly forming SCOBY) are not the most attractive things to have sitting on your counter.  Think tannish-slimy-pancakey-placenta-like looking thing floating around in a big pot of tea and you'll get a pretty accurate picture.  I could put them up in the cupboard, but I think it's rather fun to watch the fermenting take place.  Besides, it's certainly a conversation starter and most folks don't think we're freaky enough yet. So, it's helpful on the counter.

We drank our first batch straight, no flavoring.  I tried adding a bit of fresh ginger to brew number two (yes, I have read a lot of Seuss over the years).  It was good, but I think I went a bit overboard on it because it was pretty spicy.  Batch three was again plain and was the most bubbly so far.  Very yummy.  The Big Guy has requested I try the ginger again with a bit lighter hand.  So, the plan for what's currently brewing on my counter is to flavor some with ginger and the rest with some frozen blueberries.

Have we noticed any big miraculous changes in our health over the past weeks?  Well, as a matter of fact I have.  Check out this photo the Big Guy took of me last weekend:

How amazing is that?    Seriously, neither of us have noticed any dramatic differences, but I'm not willing to say that it hasn't been helpful either.  Right about the time we started drinking off our first brew, I was told I had severe anemia and started taking iron supplements.  One of the side effects which come with such supplements is, um, how to put this...internal stoppages.  Without telling you more that you really want to know, let's just say such stoppages haven't been a problem.  I'm chalking it up to the kombucha along with my gorgeous new blond hair and amazingly straight white teeth.

Big Garage Sale in Progress

I wish you could have seen our garage, driveway and yard at 8am this morning!  It was packed to gills.  Seven families have brought over their "rummage" for the sale.

Now, just 3 hours later - I am flabbergasted at how much is gone.  Amazing!

We'll keep you posted on how it all ends up.  Rummage sales are always a tricky - sometimes it seems they are a bunch of work for $5.00 of profit and other times it is a bunch of work for $500.00.  I've held several sales here on the farm and we have done pretty well. 

It seems this current sale is off to a wonderful start...

No one has asked to buy the chickens, although they did take one lady by surprise when she looked in our back yard.

Ode to Pi Day

Today is the 13th of March. Happy Pi Day! 3/14...get it? 3.14...

In honor of the day, we'll be having homemade apple PI for dinner. (Sunday night dinners are a bit of a free for all around here.)

We've even written a short poem in honor of Pi.

Ode to Pi Day

Oh, three point one four
Sweet three point one four
You make math so easy
No longer a chore
For this we all love you
Dear three point one four.