Archive for » February, 2010 «

Around the Urban Homestead

28 Feb 2010 by viggie

I’ve been looking ahead at some of my upcoming expenses and worrying a lot.  Our new health insurance has a large deductible I’ve started putting money aside for. I need to put on a new roof and my first estimate was $8,000, which was considerably more than I expected for my cozy little house.  It looks like I’ll be headed back to school in fall and although it would be employer funded, I have to pay tuition up front and wait for reimbursement after the semester is over.  I’ve also re-evaluated how much emergency funds I want put aside and will be increasing that amount.

I’ve been living on the frugal side for a while now.  But with these things in mind I went over the budget again and got rid of some nice to haves.  I had allowances for entertainment, clothing, and eating out (having a cafeteria in my building is waaaaaay too convenient) that I can cut now that I’m tightening my belt.  My netflix and very discounted gym membership were canceled immediately.  I still have a spending allowance for daily expenses and projects, so I’ll be able to do a few more planned additions to the “farm” and keep household supplies up.  But some of the less necessary projects and expenses I’ve been looking forward to like putting up a privacy fence and getting my 2 year old perm refreshed may not happen.

I’ve done a few practice sessions on the spinning wheel, and am glad I took the advice I heard to spend 10 minutes each time.  It’s long enough to practice, but short enough you don’t frustrate yourself.  And I’ve started having problems with the juvenile rabbit.  On a few mornings she’s become suddenly very aggressive when I feed her, growling and once even biting me.  Then the next time I go to feed her she’ll be herself again and not mind being petted.  Not sure what’s going on there.

To fill in my new entertainment void, I’ve found a few interesting sounding events and classes that are either free or with a small suggested donation.  They sound like fun and I’ll get to learn something in the process.  I’ll tell you about them as they come up :)   Now I’m glad that I have such a good book collection and a library nearby to keep me busy.  I’m sure that once gardening season gets underway I’ll be wishing I had enough free time to worry about entertainment.

Category: Around the Urban Homestead  Tags:  One Comment

First seeds started

27 Feb 2010 by viggie

Although I can’t plant out until Mother’s Day, I do have a few seeds that like a very early start. This week I hauled in a bag of potting  soil to allow it to thaw out, and filled some of my saved yogurt containers. The first row is German Chamomile and the second is St. John’s Wort.  Boy, do they ever have microscopic seeds!

first seed starts

Taking over the plant stand for seed starting meant I had a few displaced plants. My cascading tomato and sad little strawberries are now hanging in my citrus window. I hope the change from bright plant lights on a timer to our sad Wisconsin winter natural light goes ok for them :(

Category: Chamomile, Seed Starting, St. John's Wort  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment

Repurposing

26 Feb 2010 by viggie

I’ve been keeping an eye out for useful items to scavenge, and trying to think of creative ways to reuse things.  When I saw this message board lying by the dumpers I got my chance.  I thought of the tangled mess of cheap jewelry I’ve collected through the years and how nice it would be to hang them all up.  I didn’t have cute little hooks to use which would have been ideal.  For now, I used thumb tacks to hold each item up.  When I find my push pins I’ll upgrade the board to those, because then I can hang the items right on the pin heads rather than removing them each time.  I just hid this board behind my bedroom door, which is always open, where it’ll be out of sight.  I’m pretty happy with my free organizer :)

2067

Category: Frugal  Tags:  One Comment

Wordless Wednesday – Cascading Tomatoes

24 Feb 2010 by viggie

displaced plants

Category: Container Gardening, Tomatoes  Tags: , ,  2 Comments

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

22 Feb 2010 by viggie

Some of you may have heard that I’ve been trying to lose weight. I haven’t been as successful thus far as I would have liked, but I’m making progress and I am picking up some wonderful new healthy recipes that will help in the long run. These muffins were one of the meal suggestions from sparkpeople, they are wonderfully moist and tasty.

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

INGREDIENTS
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup non-fat milk ( I used powdered)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 egg whites (I used powdered)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
raisins or nuts (optional)

TOPPING
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sugar

DIRECTIONS
Soak oats in milk for an hour. 10 minutes if using quick oats. Add applesauce and egg whites and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, mix remaining ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Fold in optional raisins or nuts.

Spoon batter into greased muffin tin and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar topping. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes until done.

As stated makes twelve 93 calorie muffins. Sometimes dieting ain’t so bad :)

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

Category: Recipe  Tags:  3 Comments

Around the Urban Homestead

21 Feb 2010 by viggie

The big excitement this week was a very lucky antique find. I saw a posting for a $57 Alfred Andresen spinning wheel and called immediately. The woman had it as a conversation piece and didn’t know anything about the wheel functionally, but my Aunt who’s a spinner sweetly came along and checked it out for me. I ended up coming home with it for an even $50.

There were two minor things for me to fix. Somewhere along the line someone decided the hole that the flyer sits in wasn’t necessary and filled it in. I was able to push all of it through with a screw driver. The legs were also a bit wobbly, and I shimmed those up enough that the pedal doesn’t fall off anymore. I spent some time taking it apart and wiping it down with denatured alcohol to clean off the accumulated grime. And I read that crochet thread makes a good drive band, so now it’s all strung up and ready to go. I’m very excited to start playing around with it. :)

ETA: I’ve been looking for more information about the wheel, and the only article I’ve found is this snippet stating they found it listed as being imported from Norway in a 1902 catalog.

my new spinning wheel

Category: Around the Urban Homestead, Spinning  Tags: ,  2 Comments

Reference Books

19 Feb 2010 by viggie

I’ve always adored books and have a good collection.  So when I started working on new skills, the first thing I thought of was getting some good reference books.  But a lot of them were borrowed and returned leaving my reference shelf bare.  So I’ve slowly been adding to my collection and trying to fill in gaps.  Here is what I have now.

Do you keep a reference collection?  I’d love to hear what you have or hear any feedback if you think I’m missing anything.

UPDATED 6/20/10 Now that I’m buying dry goods in bulk and have all those home dehydrated and canned goods in my pantry, I’ve added a bunch of pantry cooking books to the collection.
UPDATED 4/12/10 Thinking of the upcoming garden and added a couple books on cooking vegetables.

Category: Information  Tags: ,  4 Comments

Wordless Wednesday – Kiwi

17 Feb 2010 by viggie

kiwi

Category: Wordless Wednesday  Tags:  One Comment

Making Cheese

15 Feb 2010 by viggie

I have another first to share: cheesemaking!  I saw this very easy recipe posted on Homestead Hearth for Queso Blanco. It’s simply a gallon of milk and 1/4 cup vinegar. The milk is heated until just before boiling when it starts to froth. The vinegar is then slowly drizzled in which causes the milk to start to curd. Continue stirring and very quickly the liquid whey that’s left turns clear to indicate you are done.

queso blanco 1

They curds are then ladled out (if you wish to save the whey) or poured into several layers of cheesecloth lining a colander. The cheesecloth is tied off and hung to allow the cheese to drip dry.

queso blanco 2

And then it’s crumbled for some very lightly flavored feta-like Queso Blanco cheese. I like the ideas posted on the forum to dehydrate the cheese for use as something similar to Parmesan. You can use the whey as liquid in your baking, or process it further into different whey cheeses. For now, I’m just happy with this gorgeous crumble.

queso blanco 3

Category: Cheesemaking  Tags: ,  2 Comments

Around the Urban Homestead

14 Feb 2010 by viggie

I promised to talk about chores, so that will be today’s topic.  I’ve been slowly adding things to my routine over the last 6 months or so to make the transition from lazy to productive easier to handle.  I use some flylady techniques to help me.  I even keep my sink shiny, which is important when you do everything from cooking to laundry in the kitchen.  This is my routine right now, it’ll change when the growing season starts and expand as I learn new things.

Each morning I make my bed, get my workout clothes on, put water on to boil for tea and/or oatmeal, then go out and feed and water the bunnies.  I walk through the spare room to get there, so on the way back the cat box gets cleaned and the plants and fountain get water if needed.  The cats are fed and I eat my breakfast.  I get in some workout time either at home while watching a DVD or at the gym in the office, then shower and head to work.  I even hang my work clothes in outfits so that they are grab and go.

After work I come in through the back door so I can feed and clean the bunnies.  I made an area in the front closet where I can set down my things and hang up my purse and jacket so everything stays tidy.  Dinner is made and dishes done.  The sink is shined.

Before bed I unplug appliances and electronics, lock up, do any prep work that needs to be done (setting up coffee pot, starting dehydrators, soaking beans or sprouts, etc), pack a lunch, get myself ready and “swish and swipe” in the bathroom.  That’s flylady terms for wiping down the counter and swishing the toilet brush so it’s always clean in there.

Every weekend I scrub a load of laundry, thoroughly clean the bunny cages, give them hay, and groom them.  Inside I pick up the house and vacuum.  My kitchen chores including cooking a couple meals and packing them up so I have some leftovers to reheat during the week.  I mill flour and make sourdough bread.  I’ve started making yogurt, soymilk, and tortillas most weeks.  I also upload any pics I’ve taken and work on blog entries, scheduling them to post during the week so you don’t get a large gush of them at one time.

Category: Around the Urban Homestead  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
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