A Simple Christmas

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It is that peaceful time of year again.

Yes, Christmas ... peaceful.

Time to enjoy the peaceful rest of the winter season as nature does.

Time to enjoy and treasure family and friends.

Homemaker's Organizer Giveaway

I just had to share with you, who may not have seen this yet, that there is a giveaway going on for this incredible Homemaker's Organizer!

It could also be called a Homesteader's or Gardener's Organizer too because it contains some extremely helpful pages on garden layout, canning inventory, freezer inventory, harvest and preservation records etc.  

Healing our Highland

It is finally time to share with you our journey in healing our Scottish Highland calf.  The struggles and sadness have been great, and on most days we have fought to continue, but hard work is never a waste of time.  We decided that if nothing else, if the end result was terrible, we would at least have learned from it.  Little did we know we faced pneumonia, dehydration, paralysis and a lot of rehabilitation for this little calf.  

Warning:  picture below may be disturbing.

Fixing Crooked Toes on Poultry

Before I tell you how to fix crooked toes, I have to tell you our egg story.

We have one guinea.  We have had only one guinea for a few years and she is the ugly duckling of the chicken coop, but she is the BEST when it comes to eating bugs and not destroying our garden.

Because of that fact, I decided to get some more guineas.  The first place I looked was on the ever famous Craigslist.  There were several for sale, but too far away to be worth making the drive.  I then began to search for guinea eggs.  We have hatched out many chickens and a few geese, so how hard could it be to hatch out guineas?  My conclusion of this was my first mistake.

Sweet Pepper Salsa Relish

One of my dear friends introduced this basic recipe to me a few years back.  She moved to the Ozarks from the great state of Texas and brought this recipe with her.  From what I hear ... there is a nice restaurant down there that people rave about called the Blue Mesa Grill.  They specialize in Southwestern cuisine.  I'm not exactly sure how my friend got her hands on their Blue Mesa Jalapeno Relish recipe, but I'm telling you, it's absolutely scrumptious!  You can eat it by itself, slather it on hamburgers or any sandwich you please.  We eat it over meatloaf and roast too.  If you sliced everything small enough, it would be great on crackers.

Amish Tomato Ketchup

I finally did it!  Ketchup is something I've never done before, but over the winter, each time I had to buy ketchup, I cringed and vowed to make it for ourselves this year.

Our tomatoes are slowly rolling in, but I didn't have near enough to make ketchup with, so I headed to Amish country for the homegrown tomatoes I needed.  

There are so many recipes out there and I couldn't decide which one to try.  This recipe is an old Amish recipe from my Farmhouse cookbook.  It states that it is a sweet ketchup, sweeter than store bought.

Canning Corn on the Cob

In all fairness, I have to say that canning corn hasn't been the easiest thing I've canned, but it will be MORE than worth it when the wind is howling and the snow is falling this winter.

I hope I don't scare you off by saying that because it really isn't a big deal to do.

Tip #1 - First of all, make sure you know where the corn has come from.  If you buy it from a roadside or farmers market stand beware.  Be sure and know what type of corn it is.  Corn is one of the biggest crops that has been genetically modified and you don't want to feed it to your family.