It Was Not A Vacation to Florida...

...It was School On The Road! ( That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)


Economics- Marvelling at all the expensive beach-front condos on Daytona Beach. We practically had the beach to ourselves, just us and the locals.



Marine Biology- Digging for... I don't know!


World History- Spending time with the Jamaican side of the family. An after-church photo with HWH's brothers, mother and step-father.



Physical Education- Grandma is a great quarterback!



See? School!



History- Learning about Spanish colonial life in St. Augustine, Florida.



More History- That leather canteen was pretty cool. The cobbler's shop was the most interesting of all the places on the living history tour.



Botany- "Whatcha' planting, Grandma?



Botany and Chemistry- Roselle (Hibiscus) picked in Grandma's garden, to be brewed up for Sorrel ( a Jamaican holiday drink).


Geography- We always stop at the Mississippi River.

What a blessing it was to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's side of the family.

I Keep Telling Myself It's Hands-On Science

Meet the 10 newest additions to our homestead! The Rouen duck that has not been able to hatch eggs over the past two years really gave us a surprise. Good timing too, they hatched the day after we got home from our Thanksgiving trip!

Of course the children are thrilled. Hands-on science lessons at their very best. I'll admit, watching the eggs hatch was very exciting and interesting. All of the books on rearing ducklings were pulled off the shelf and re-read. Some creative engineering was done to get a brooder set up with as little expense as possible. Several ducklings did not survive, but the children took that in stride- death is a part of homestead life.

We'll start looking for homes for our duck friends soon. I don't know if we'll keep any of the ducklings, we were supposed to be downsizing our animal population in an effort to trim the budget for some other needs we have. I've got to pray on that issue.

Picking Up Pecans, Among Other Things

We've had lots of things going on around here lately- including picking up pecans. We are blessed to have a "grandma" that shares her pecan trees with my family. All of those trees in the picture are pecan trees!

It seems like the pecan trees produce well every other year, so you have to be diligent about gathering a good supply, it may be two years before another good crop comes in. The kids like to use the pecan picker-upper, but I just get my pecans the old-fashioned way, bend over and start picking.

I use lots of pecans, not just in my baking, but in vegetarian nut loaves and burgers, etc, so these pecans are pretty valuable to me. Now I have something to do with my hands all winter. Sit in front of the fire and shell pecans.

Sources for Purchasing Whole Grains

Cassandra had a question about sources for whole grains for grinding. Right now, our local health food store carries Wheat Montana. I use Bronze Chief wheat berries for bread baking, soft white wheat as a pastry flour and Prairie Gold wheat in place of all-purpose flour.

Depending on where you live in the US, Azure Standard, Something Better, Country Life Foods or Walton Feed may be a good choice for ordering whole grains in bulk. Often you can find a local buying co-oops that purchase from these companies in group orders to save on shipping costs. I buy wheat berries and whole corn in bulk for grinding. I also buy bulk rolled oats, all in 50lb bags. I'm looking into buying oat groats and a roller mill, then I can roll my own oats as I need them.

I take my bags of grain and put them in the freezer for at least 48-72 hrs to kill any bugs that might be in the grain (a whole grain fact of life). Then I store them in air-tight containers in my pantry. Wheat berries, whole corn and oat groats will last fairly indefinitely in a cool dry place.

Take A Guess...

A Thanksgiving morning project. Can you guess what my in-laws and husband were doing? Take a guess! Some of you (Ruth, Verne and Thandi ) will know.

Random Grace Notes

Simplicity Notes~ The first 2010 seed catalog came in today. I grabbed a pen and started marking up the catalog! Perhaps it is a good thing we don't own a tractor. I'd order a bit of everything and have a ball experimenting. I think this coming year I'm going to work on learning to grow potatoes and beans. I'm going to take a break from trying to grow a million tomatoes.

Keeper @ Home Notes~ Good tools and appliances make home-keeping so much easier. Nothing worse than struggling with a cheap mop or or a powerless blender! Most of my home-keeping tools are either as old as my marriage (16+ years) or were hand-me-downs. I'm slowly but surely trying to acquire quality tools and appliances. On my "save-up-for-it" list: a baking stone (cookie sheet size), an electric grain mill ( my carpal tunnel has flared up, making it nearly impossible to use my manual grain mill), and a good ironing board. Nothing is worse than a cheap ironing board!

Contented @ 35K/yr Notes ~ I want to add a few things to our budget, so it's time to cut a few things from the budget. I'm planning giving my chickens and ducks away to a good home. The monthly expense outweighs the benefits right now. The children are okay with it, because we are keeping our cat and the rabbit.

We are going to need a new new-to-us car. My car is 14 years old with 194K miles. I'm learning how to do a diagnostic on it before I leave the driveway! We recently went window shopping at a local car lot. YIKES!!!! The prices are one thing, but the thought of having a car payment hanging over our heads in this economy was just too much for me. I think I'll invest in some new car seat covers instead. As much as we need another car, we'll just keep waiting and saving up. I prayed about it and the Lord has given me peace to wait. Thank you, Lord!!


His Grace Notes ~ I've been on a spiritual roller coaster for the past few months. One of my personal mottoes is that my life and home are a "No Drama Zone!" Keep your drama to yourself, please! I had someone try to create drama in my life this summer and the Lord had to really work with me! I was very discouraged for awhile, but I can now see the blessings that the Lord had in store for me when I trusted Him to take care of things. I'm still challenged on a regular basis because I have to be around the person who caused me such heartache, but God is so good! I hope to share the lessons I've learned soon, I just have to find the right words to express them.