Blog Posts - Our Tiny Homestead

Dirty Little Secrets

6/14/2019

Bear here...

Ever get tired of the websites where everything is perfect the first time? I call bull crap!

Want to hear some secrets? Not everything works out the way people planned it. Some ideas that sound good really are bad ideas, and sometimes the good ideas need tweaking (repair work) a few years later. People learn from mistakes (usually). Here at Our Tiny Homestead we are not afraid to talk about our mistakes. It's one way we learn and sometimes laugh. Here is an example...

In our Youtube video about catio 2, I boasted about how I thought a straw couch would be a good idea, and save us a lot of money. At the time Frost looked comfortable (left below) so it should work for humans, Right? As you can see in the other photo he is checking to see how I was doing. Not too bad. Sure it was lumpy but a thick blanket under me could fix that. Right? I figured the bales wouldn't sink in the mud like chair legs do. We usually get more straw bales every spring so it wouldn't be a big deal to replace the straw couch...

... Some things I found out after dealing with the couch was:

Thick blankets didn't work, I'm too heavy and still felt the separate bales under me.
Straw stays wet a long time after it rains. A lot of the time I would need plastic under the blanket if I wanted to be dry when I got up.
Mushrooms tend to grow in straw bales, and not the good, edible ones. The shrooms left black marks on the blankets and if the cats ate the shrooms they could get sick or die.
The bales became mushy over the summer. They didn't sink, they were crushed. The couch was lower and harder to get up from.
The word ICKY comes to mind when I had to move the large glops of straw with mold and critter droppings inside. The middle of the bales never really dried that summer.

We have learned and we have improved. As you can see (below) we have built a patio in the catio. There is now a space that has no chance of mud. We also found an inexpensive double lounger by Outsunny ($200 instead of the usual $1000). I can nap on it while the cats nap on me.

Live and learn.

Type at ya later...

Weeds salad

6/9/2019

Bear here...

Just another reminder why "weeds" are your friends. We wanted salad without going to the store, so we went to our yarden instead. We found Turkish rocket, chickweed, and lambs quarter... and...

Wha-la... Weeds Salad...

Fun facts:

People spray weed killer to get rid of chickweed and lambs quarters. We let them grow. Theresa has a stock tank in our garden just for growing lambs quarters because she loves it in soups and salads.
Chickweed has lots of vitamins.
2/3 of this salad was provided for us by Mother Nature .
With homemade vinaigrette dressing this Yarden salad brightens up any breakfast (see below)...

Time to get outside and see what else we can harvest.

Except I almost forgot- our shameless plug- there are more chickweed (and other "weed") recipes in our book:
Eat Your Wild Yard.

Type at ya later...

A Day Without Power

2/24/2019

Bear here...

Ever been surprised by a power outage and thought " Oh CRAP... now what do we do?" We had that experience today. We were also ready for it. We couldn't go on line to see our prepare for power outage page but we did have a list of what to do when the power goes out. Luckily the power was out for only 2 hours. Being prepared made those 2 hours a lot less stressful. Today is a windy day and the power could get knocked out again. It can look ugly out there (see below), and panic may set in. You don't have to panic if you are prepared. Here are a few basics.

What you need is heat, water and food. We have a wood burning stove so we are set. If you have a backup generator make sure sure it works before you need it. Run it for an hour a month during the cold season so you KNOW it will run when you need it. If you have neither, find a heater that runs on batteries and have plenty of batteries. If you have no heat source put everyone in one room dress in layers and put blankets around doors and windows so cold air cant get in. Below is a picture of our winter Safety net.

We need Water and food to survive. If you don't have a lot of bottled water around fill as many containers as you can with water from the tap. One gallon of water per person for 7 days may seem like overkill but it's not, it's better than running out. Remember you will also needing water to wash things and water for your pets. You want food that you can and will want to eat without opening a refrigerator. Having a full pantry of canned food, peanut butter and the like. I also suggest powdered milk is good to have on hand.

Those are the basics, here are a few "tricks"

A full freezer will stay frozen for about 48 hours if unopened. A refrigerator will stay cold for 4 to 6 hours. Old school iceboxes were kept cold with large blocks of ice. Get 2 to 4 gallon milk jugs or 2 medium buckets and fill them with water and set outside to freeze. When frozen put 1/2 in refrigerator and swap every 8 to 10 hours.
If something needs chilled but not frozen after opening put some snow in a large pan or cooler and cover to keep chilled.
keep nonelectric entertainment around. (books, puzzles, games, ect. ) Makes time go faster.
Plan a menu for a week that doesn't need electricity and always keep those items in pantry. Remember to keep supplies for your pets.
Learn to cook with your wood burning stove.
Have some no electricity weekends for fun and practice for emergencies, take notes on what would make them better.

Hope is helps,

Type at ya later...

Cooking Pot Roast Chili on the Wood Stove

2/23/2019

Bear here...

Tis the season to use the wood burning stove and try something new with it. Chili is also a good winter treat. Here is how I make my chili taste like it was done over a camp fire.

If you're cooking from scratch, soak 1 cup red beans & 1 cup black beans overnight. We like grains in our chili so I also soaked 1 cup of barley overnight with 2 Tblsp of cider vinegar in the water. Get a 3-5 lb chuck roast. Use whatever spices you want to season the chili. (It could be as simple as chili powder and onions.) I added salsa instead of tomatoes.

When you're ready to start the chili, cover the beans with 1 - 2 inches of water and bring them to a boil for 15 min. (This kills bacteria that could be on the beans. I recently read that in a book that teaches how to serve safe food.) Then cook covered for 1 hour to soften the beans.

Now the fun part. Cut your chuck roast into thick strips. Try to get as many strips as possible that will fit on your bed of coals. The more strips you have, the more area you'll have to absorb the grill flavor and smoke. Cut the meat, season with salt, then put in the refrigerator. The salt will pull moisture from the meat and give it a better chance to char. (The longer it's refrigerated the better. I put mine in the refrigerator before I put the beans on to boil.) Below left is what fit in my stove, below right shows it cooking on the coals.

Prior to cooking the meat, burn smaller wood to get more flames that will heat the fire box as much as possible. You want a bed of medium sized, orange coals. Sear the meat directly on the coals with the door mostly closed for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. The mostly closed door will keep the smoke in while drawing in extra air to keep heating the coals.

When done put the meat back in the pan and get all the coals & ash off of it. Trust me, you want ALL the coals gone (below left). Then cut the meat into bite sized chunks (below right). It will smell like you are cutting a grilled steak. You'll want to sample like me, just don't eat too much. (I stopped at about 1/3 of a slab- no willpower here.)

Put the meat, onions, and seasoning of choice into your pot of beans and stir to combine. Make sure everything is covered with liquid, add water if you need to. Maintain the fire and cook the chili covered for at least 3 hours (stir every 1/2 hour until you are done, to keep things from burning on the bottom.) After 3 hours remove the lid, add a jar of salsa, stir, and cook until chili thickens. The fat from the roast will float to the top- you can scoop it out or stir it in- your choice. Mine wasn't thick yet and I forgot to take the done picture. Ooops...

The meat will be tender like pot roast and taste like steak. The best of both worlds.

Type at ya later...

Sleeping in Winter's Darkness- a Great Birthday Present

12/11/2018

From Theresa:

For our annual Winter Solstice celebration, we try to connect with Winter's darkness. On this longest night of the year, we don't turn on any lights once the sun sets (around 4 pm). We spend our evening in front of the wood stove, try to keep the Yule log burning all night, and then greet the Sun when it rises the next morning (around 7 am). This ritual of not using electrical lights lets us truly experience the dark, which is a rare occurrence in most of the USA, where we suffer from light pollution. I love our Solstice celebration, and always wish it could continue for more than one night. This year, thanks to an extended sick leave, I get to have my wish.

Winter Solstice sunrise at our house.

I had foot surgery a couple weeks ago, and will not be able to return to work for another 4 weeks. Tomorrow is my birthday, so I asked Bear if he would be willing to trying waking with the sunrise and going to sleep at sunset as my birthday present, at least between now and the Solstice (Dec. 21st), and hopefully longer. I have a long commute to work, so in the Winter I get up before the sun rises and I don't get home until after it sets. I bet that is familiar to a lot of you. Bear isn't working right now, so this may be the only time we're able to try this experiment together.

Using candles or fire light, instead of electricity, is one way you could try to connect with the darkness of Winter.

If you try to live connected to the seasons, then the darkness of Winter is a time for rest that promotes rejuvenation. It is a time to slow down and dream, to feed your soul with ideas that will help you choose what projects to work on come Spring. Accordingly, I've been reading random books and blogs that I don't usually have time for. This morning I picked up Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice. It's about eating seasonally and locally, using traditional cooking methods, in connection with the 13 lunar cycles. Turning to the current lunar month, I discovered she called it the Moon of Long Nights. She discusses how before the advent of electricity, we would normally have a Winter season of long nights with lots of extra sleep. She discusses other authors who believe that using electricity to stay up after the sun goes down keeps our bodies in a state of perpetual Summer, and traces this to our cravings for sugar and carbohydrates, which normally we would only have access to in the Summer. In the Winter, we would have been eating mostly protein. I like this quote:

Our biology says, "Curl up in the back of the cave and gnaw on a buffalo bone, then sleep for fourteen hours," while our society says, "Run around shopping in brightly lit stores and then stay out late at a [holiday] party drinking champagne, eating truffles, and being sociable with your coworkers."

I find even more interesting information she shares that when we sleep for fourteen hours a night, nine of those hours are normal sleep, but in the middle of the night, during the other five hours, our bodies secrete a hormone that causes a wakefulness that is similar to meditative states. Prentice says:

...by depriving ourselves of long nights of winter sleep, we are depriving ourselves of a state of meditative healing and spiritual communion, a time when we have access to messages from a higher consciousness.

This was not the first I've heard of this. I've read other accounts of spiritual pursuits in some cultures that occur in the middle of the night, but it did remind me that I've always wanted to test the theory in my own life. I often wake up around 2 or 3 am, which I've read is common, and perhaps genetically encoded. It wouldn't be a problem if I had time to go back to sleep, but since I usually have to get up at 4 am to get to work, this middle of the night wakefulness has thus far only resulted in sleep deprivation for me.

Thanks to Bear's willingness to agree to this experiment, I'm looking forward to connecting with the season, which thankfully will mean getting more sleep and perhaps finding another way to connect with the Divine. If we were starting today, it would be time to go to bed now. Instead, Bear is still out shopping for birthday treats and we haven't had dinner yet.

I wonder what we will learn, or come to realize, or begin to remember from deep in our bones, when we sleep during the long, dark hours and remain active only during the light. In what ways will our body and spirits heal?

For our Winter Solstice celebration, we build a pallet of blankets in front of our wood stove and sleep there, waking periodically to keep the fire going all night.

Our book, Eat Your Wild Yard, is published!

10/30/2018

We've finally self-published our first book:

Eat Your Wild Yard: Spring

In it, we show you how to enjoy growing & eating some of our favorite wild Spring edibles:
Nettle, Chickweed, Fiddleheads, Ramps, Violet Leaves. (BEAR SAYS they taste like plant, but in a good way.)

We have been posting for years about our yarden and now you can get us in PRINT! (And hug the book sometimes like Theresa does.) Each chapter includes an introduction to the plant, full color photos to help with identification, instructions on growing & harvesting, and easy to follow recipes with a photo for every step.

Click here for all the details!

Getting Stumped....

9/11/2018

Bear here....

As you can see (above) the stump I use for splitting wood has seen better days. Time to switch it out. When I moved it out I noticed A LOT of ants were living in and beneath it. In the picture below you can see the ant damage in the old stump. This stump was good but I wanted the next stump to last longer. So here is what I did...

I needed a new stump, and some pea gravel. I dug the old hole out about 6 to 8 inches down...

Put 3 or 4 inches of pea gravel in the hole (about 1/2 the bag) then set the stump in and twist it ti get it level and stable. I am betting the water will drain and the stump will rot slower, also the ants cant get through the gravel to eat the stump or live in the rotten wood.

Put the rest of the pea gravel around the stump, stomp it down and you are protected on all sides and done!

... Oops, forgot the drop chop. The device in the first picture saves me a lot of time and effort when making kindling. The best thing you can do is keep the instructions for the tool where you can find them, I'm not that good. I had to measure where the hole for the post was and compare drill bits to the old hole and check it to see how deep of a hole was needed...

... NOW I'm done! I'm ready for more kindling making... Hope this helps if you need to replace your stump.

Type at ya later...

THANK YOU...

6/27/2018

Bear here....

It"s been a while. We are just wanting to let everyone know that we appreciate those who view our website and like us. You inspire us to keep the website going and again, thank you!

we will blog and add to the website when we can.

It wouldn't be a OTH blog with out pictures so...

... Here is some Yarden art with a fallen large tree limb we wouldn't get rid of...

... Here is the new free little library we put in this spring...

... And of course, Yours truly, Gathering wild strawberries from our over grown patio. They were great with ice cream, just sayen...

Thanks again...

Type at ya later...

Pond Advice...

5/22/2018

Bear here...

When we were "pond rookies" we were warned to NOT GET DUCK WEED! It will spread, take over a small pond, and you will never get rid of it. I didn't listen. I actually put a little in with the pond plants we bought. I was D U M B ... dumb. That stuff spread and sometimes our pond looks more like a swamp with no water. Below are some pictures...

NOT the look we were going for. You can see below the dark green pile we cleaned out. Within 48 hours the pond looked the same as above. It's good cover for tadpoles but it sucks to view them.

My simple advice is avoid duckweed if you can. Although... I have heard you can eat duckweed... ? ... Perhaps Theresa and I may try to grow some inside by our windows this winter and see how it tastes.

A note from Theresa: Duckweed isn't all bad. Although Bear is against duckweed because it blocks our view of the tadpoles and some wildlife, I have read that the pond needs to be 3/4 covered with plants or the water will get warm enough to get algae blooms that kill oxygenator plants under the surface. That can hurt the ecosystem of a small natural pond. The duckweed keeps the water cool in the hot weeks before other plants can grow. And yes, my books say you can eat it...

... From Bear...

And now you see why Theresa is the brains of this outfit. Be careful when you clean out the duckweed.

Type at you later...

Cool News... Books!

5/21/2018

Bear here...

Last year we did an E-book to be sold in an E-bundle (cover below). It did pretty well. So well that Theresa and I thought you would like a chance to get it in paperback.

As you can see, Theresa, Mist, and Rue (pictured below) are hard at work reformatting the E-book to paperback so we can sell it through our website. I am pretty sure they will be asking for my help soon.

Since we have noticed there is a lot of interest in our Wood Burning Stove pages we have decided to make a book on what you can do with your wood burning stove, hopefully before Fall. I am guessing I get to help more with that book because the cats can't cook and you need thumbs for the other wood stove stuff. Just sayen...

Type at ya later...

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