Pinterest Project #1

Posted on 1/23/2012 by Rhonda

I love Pinterest, but it is so easy to pin a million projects that I want to do and then never do them. So I am trying to do a pinterest inspired project each week (or maybe every other week.)

I started with liquid hand soap. Since we have a farm, and I am just kind of messy (especially in the kitchen), I think we tend to use more hand soap than the average family. I usually buy it in the big containers, but I haven’t found any without all the chemical additives.

Overall, the project was pretty easy and not too time consuming. It usually takes me much longer than the estimated time to complete a project, but I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly this went. Maybe it’s because I actually have counter space to work on these days.

First, I got my supplies. I found some Burt’s Bee’s soap at Grocery Outlet (or the Used Food Store as my husband calls it). It was 99 cents…a pretty good deal. Then I went looking for glycerine and couldn’t find it at the drugstores, so I took advantage of our Amazon Prime 2 day shipping and ended up getting it (for $9) by the next day.

I then grated the soap, which I think looked suspiciously like Parmesan cheese.

Next I added the soap to 2 quarts of water and added 1 Tablespoon of glycerine. Since my bar of soap was only 4 ounces instead of eight ounces, I only used 2 quarts of water. I actually used a bit less, because I had read about many people ending up with soap that was too runny, and I figured it would be easier to thin it than to try to thicken it. I cooked this mixture over medium heat just until the soap melted.

At this point, it just looks like soapy water. I then left it on my stove overnight in order to thicken it up.

When I got up in the morning, it was pretty thick, so I knew I would have to add a bit of water and blend it with my hand mixer. But then I turned on the oven to bake something and forgot all about the soap. The heat from the oven softened it up to a great consistency, but it was still warm, so I thought it would thicken up again after a couple of hours. It didn’t. It stayed the perfect consistency.

I still ended up using my hand mixer to beat it a little bit, because the top layer sorted of hardened over.

I then poured it into a recycled soap bottle (only spilling a little bit). And there you have it: homemade hand soap for just a couple of dollars and a little work.

We haven’t had a chance to use it much, so I don’t have a good review on how it works or how it lasts long term. It is not sudsy, because I didn’t add a sudsing agent, so that is something to be aware of.

Do you make your own soap, or have you made any pinterest inspired projects?

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My helper

Posted on 1/15/2012 by Rhonda

I have managed to get out of doing farm chores for the last couple of months. But since Christmas vacation is over and my husband is back at work, the chicken chores are my responsibility again.
This time of year, when it is so cold, their water freezes overnight, so we have to replace it daily. And we have to remember to bring the frozen waterer inside so that it will be ready for the next day. This also means the hoses are often frozen, so I have to haul the full waterer from the faucet to the chicken pen.
I must admit that I usually take the lazy way out by putting the baby in the carseat and driving down to the field. This way, he can stay in the warm car while I feed, water, and collect eggs.
Earlier this week, I decided that he should just do the chores with me. Three months old isn’t too young to learn how to do the farm chores, right? So, I bundled him up and put him in the Baby Bjorn. I did let him face out so that he could see what was going on.
Now I know that there are some devoted babywearing moms who can do everything with a baby strapped in front of them, I am not one of them. I am not opposed to that, but it just doesn’t work for us. I am a klutz, and strapping a wiggly baby to the front of me doesn’t help. Despite this, we ventured out to the field. Overall, it went quite well. I didn’t break any eggs. I didn’t even get all tangled up when I tried to step over the electric fence. (I have gotten my foot caught and fallen many times when I wasn’t wearing a baby.) The distance carrying the water between the faucet and the pen did seem to multiply with the extra weight, but we made it.
I’m not sure how often I will do the chores this way, but I think he should probably help more often, so that he knows what is expected of him when he’s older. :)

Here is my view of his little head looking at the chickens.

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2011

Posted on 1/11/2012 by Rhonda

It’s a new year, which means that it is time for me to think about blogging again.

2011 was a very full year for us…full of blessings and stresses.

We spent a lot of time researching laws in California for processing and selling poultry. And we successfully fought for our right to continue to sell chickens at the farmer’s market. This is not something that I ever thought that I would become passionate about, but life is not predictable.

I also quit my job to become a stay at home mom to our little bundle of joy who was born in October! We are loving being parents to our adorable boy (except for the moments like right now, when he refuses to go to bed). Being a wife and mom has been something that I have hoped for as long as I can remember, and God has blessed me abundantly in fulfilling those desires.

Even though I am no longer employed, I am sure I will stay plenty busy with the expanding farm business. The house that we recently moved into will also keep me busy. We moved into a fixer-upper on the same property that we have been living. It is a little closer to the farm fields and the packing shed, so that will be convenient. It needed a lot of work and will continue to be a work in progress. Our goal was to be moved in before the baby was born, and we sort of made it. My husband and brother-in-law moved our bed the day that my water broke. That was cutting it a little close.

2011 was an interesting year and I’m looking forward to seeing what 2012 has in store.

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Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

Posted on 2/6/2011 by Rhonda

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On my husband’s side of the family, we have kajillion nieces and nephews. Well, 18 to be exact…I think. Don’t quote me on that. In our family, the kids all have their own birthday parties and then each month we have a birthday party for all of the adults who are celebrating birthdays that month. There’s a lot of celebrating going on around here! And a lot of presents to buy.

This year I have decided that I really want to make an effort to make handmade gifts. There are a few reasons for this: I think it could save us money, it is more personal, and they all have plenty of plastic toys. (Before we were married, my husband used to give them each a special silver dollar, but that got pretty expensive. We also give them a lot of books.)

One of my nieces had a birthday party Saturday night, and as of Friday evening, I hadn’t even thought about a gift for her. I needed something quick and easy.

I decided to make some easy fabric flowers and was going to put them on a headband, but they just didn’t look right on the headband. So, I decided to use hot glue to put them on some clips, and tada!

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I think they turned out pretty cute. I just cut some slits in the birthday card and attached them. Pretty quick and easy.
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But the real test is whether or not she liked them. I think she did. She came up to me after we had cake and quite animatedly told me how much she loved them. Of course, in the words of her Papa (grandpa) she is an expressive girl. :)

The Girl Creative

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A useful find

Posted on 2/1/2011 by Rhonda

A couple of months ago, my husband and I were driving down the main street of our small town, and something on the sidewalk caught my eye. I told him to stop immediately, and I’m sure he thought something was wrong. A “vintage” trunk was practically calling out to me from it’s resting place in front of the antique store. The big $10 sign that was on it called out to me even more.

We loaded it into my Subaru and brought it home. The only problem is that we have a tiny house and I already have one vintage trunk in the house. There was certainly no room for another. Since we needed to get it out of the weather, we decided that we would put it in the enclosed porch area of our fixer-upper.

That is also the place where we have been putting up siding and installing windows. (Have I mentioned that I’m totally becoming an expert at installing windows?) So, now the trunk is our new workbench. Not exactly the look that I had imagined when I bought it.

workbench 1

Not only has it become the workbench, it has also become the sawhorse.

workbench 3

I hope he doesn’t damage the trunk. Oh, it is already “weathered”, so any more injuries would just give it more character, right? In that case, I hope that he doesn’t cut his fingers.
workbench 4

Maybe someday I will be able to show you a picture of the trunk being used for it’s intended purpose. I’m not sure what that purpose is. Probably to sit there and look nice while hiding treasures inside.

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Create…Dream…Craft

Posted on 1/27/2011 by Rhonda

One of my goals this year is to take more time to create. For me, I never considered myself “creative” (I have a super creative sister to compare myself to), but I enjoyed the process of creating, whether it is making cards, baking, taking photos, blogging, decorating or other crafts.
In the last couple of years, I have felt that I haven’t taken as much time for these things as I would like. There are many reasons for this: lots of energy going to the farm, a wonderful husband to hang out with in the evenings, and living in a tiny house where there’s not much room to craft or store my embarrassing amount of craft supplies.
So, to start off the year on a creative vibe, I made an inspiration/idea board to write down ideas I have and to remind me to start (and finish!) these projects.

The inspiration for the idea board came from a scrapbooking banner that I found that pretty much commanded me to “Create, Dream, Craft”. I found a bulletin board with a frame and tore up pieces of scrapbook paper to glue to the edges. Then I added my inspirational banner, and a few embellishments, including a paper covered clothespin clip in the top right.

As you can see, I don’t have many ideas on the board yet, but it’s a start. When I think of things or see ideas that I love in magazines, I need to remember to jot them down or tear them out. I will keep you updated on how this works and hopefully I’ll have a few projects to share with you.

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New Farm Friends

Posted on 1/24/2011 by Rhonda

One of the things I look forward to on the farm is when the new baby chicks arrive. They are super cute and always make me smile. We got 75 chicks in the mail on Friday.

They are hatched somewhere in the midwest on Wednesday and then immediately put in the mail. The cute little gals arrive on Friday or Saturday. We prefer Friday, because obviously, the less time in the mail, the better. The post office calls us early on the morning they arrive, so that we can go get them home and under heat lamps as soon as possible.

These are egg laying chicks, which are different breeds than our meat chickens. Since we consistently sell out of eggs within the first few minutes at our summer Farmer’s Markets, we think expanding the egg business is a good idea. I’m not sure where we will sell 4 dozen eggs a day when the market season is over, but we still have months before we have to worry about that.

Just in case you don’t believe me about how cute they are, here is a video of some chicks we received this past spring. Don’t you love how they flit around so quickly with their chorus of “peeps”?

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