Lilac Cottage Homestead

2011-08-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone for not posting until now. This is Megan and her husband and her new baby Matthias Andrew Self. He was born on May 9th. He was 9lbs 7oz and 23inches long. I plan on doing a much much much longer post in the next day or so. Enjoy the picture.

Kelly

A Day Well Spent, Doing Nothing

2011-01-15T18:31:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I spent the whole day doing nothing but riding around with my husband. When it snows my husband is in charge of plowing the parking lots of all 4 stores that he manages. And every so often it fall on a day that we can go together. It usually is a all day thing. which is just fine with me. I bring a bunch of garden and homesteading books with me and I'm set for the day. It was one fun day, I can't wait until I can go again. We started at the store in Wintersville Oh, then we headed up to Calcutta Oh, and then it was down to Wheeling WV. We didn't get home till evening. I just love getting to be with him all day. 20yrs of marriage and I still can't spend enough time with him. As always I have added some pictures of our day together. But the last two pictures are of me and also of me and Megan that were both taken on Megs birthday at my parents house. I liked the pics and just thought I would add them at the bottom.

Here is a picture of the black beast that we went plowing in. It's my husbands bosses truck. My husband loves that truck.

My Waynie looks so serious when he is plowing. He absolutely hates his pictures taken. That is why I don't post a lot of pictures of him on here.

This is what the roads looked like while we were plowing all day. I'm never scared while my Wayne is driving.

This is the locks and dam at Straton Ohio on our way up to the Calcutta store.

Here is a closer look at the locks and dam on the Ohio River at Straton Oh. The Appalachian foothills of WV are in the background. It would be really hard for me to live somewhere away from the hills of this valley. They give my a peace and contentment. I don't know why. It's bred into me, my dad's family has been here in the Ohio Valley since the late 1700's.

Here is the Ohio River and again the WV Appalachian Foothills in the background. All of the white is really part of the river. That is how wide it is.

This is at my parents house. I love that cupboard behind me. It is from the late 1700's. My dad bought it at a house were they had it loaded up in a truck to be taken to the dump. My Dad saved it from the dump. Wouldn't that have been a shame. Thank goodness for my dad. It's a piece of history. My parents have been buyers and collects of antique from before I was born. My dad was a picker before those guys on TV were born.

Last but not least the picture of Megs and me. She is really starting to show. I know that you can't see it in the picture because of the shirt that she has on, But she is. She just started her 7th month of being pregnent.

Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures. God bless

Kelly

Happy Birthday

2011-01-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my dear daughter Megan. You are 22 today. You were born on a cold and over cast day in a hospital in WV, at 7:58 in the evening. And now you are married and about ready to have a baby of your own. You are a jewel in my crown, my blessing from God. I hope God blesses your day daughter. I love you with all my heart!!!

Retained Heat Cooking

2011-01-07T06:46:00.000-08:00

In the winter I like to read books and look through the internet to learn new things to help my homesteading, So a couple of months ago I found a interesting way of cooking that saves energy and work. I would've said a new way of cooking, but it's not new it is revived. It has been around for a very very long time. When I tried to look up how old, I found talk of it going clear back to medieval times, and who knows it could even be older. It came back into use during the late 1800's and then again during the wars of WWI, WWII, and clear up to the 1950's or so. It was so popular that there was several cookbooks written on it (between 1880's-1950's). They also made insulated boxes, and sold them in stores. So what is retained heat cooking or fireless cooking as it is sometimes called. Well it is when you use some kind of heat source to heat a pot of food of some kind very hot for a short time. Food is usually boiled. Then the pot is put into a box surrounded by hay, straw, dry leaves, news papers, blankets, rags, pillows or any kind of insulation. It could even be put in the ground and covered by the insulation. Then the pot is set aside for a long period of time to cook slowly from the retained heat of the pot of food. The idea is very simple. The great things about retained cooking is that you use less fuel because you aren't cooking it for hours, you use less water because it's not being boiled away, it uses less spices because the steam isn't wafting it a way. The food rarely ever over cooks and it never burns. It doesn't heat up the house in the summer to cook this way. A long time ago they would heat it and tuck in the box. Then go out for the day and work in the garden or what ever and when it was time for supper all they would have to do is unwrap it and serve it up. It would be great for when you go on trips. Just prepare it and put it in its box and wrap it up. Then when you are hungry to eat something hot on the road all you do is unwrap it and eat. There are so many possibilities. It is a lot like a slow cooker but without using any electricity. I have only used it once so far, but it worked wonderfully. I boiled a chicken in a pot on the stove for about a 1/2 hour and then put it in my clothes basket in the middle of about 5 layer of blankets and towels. I left it in the basket for about 4 hours. Then later when I took it out it was still really hot and fully done. The thing is that the chicken that I cooked was one of my older layers that are usually tough if not cooked for a really long time (about 4 hours on the stove). While it was in the basket I was making noodle to go in the broth that the boiled chicken would make.
I definitely plan on using it again. I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you all. I plan on cooking with it a lot this summer. I'll get it all put together and cooking before I head out to take care of the animals and work in the garden. If you would like to learn more about retained heat cooking, things like how long to cook different kinds of food. You should do like I did and google retained cooking or fireless cooking, both are the same. There is to much to learn about it for me to be able to fit it all in on this post. I have added a bunch of pictures that I have found to help show how it is done. There are also few pictures of when I cooked my chicken this way.

This is the inside of the basket I used to make my retained heat box. I had put a cast iron trivit on the last blanket that I used in the cloths basket, I put it there to keep the bottom of the hot pot off the blankets and plastic basket. The pot is really really hot when you put it in there.

Here is the pot snuggled in the basket of blankets all around it.

As soon as the pot is in the basket, cover it up quickly. So most of the pots heat is retained to use to cook the food.

Here is the pot all covered up and starting to slowly cook. Now all you do is wait.

You can google this book and actually find it on line some where. It's the whole book. I can't remember where I found it, but I know it's out there.

Here is another interesting cookbook with recipes in it for retained cooking or fireless cooking like a lot of books call it.

Here is a picture that I found of a lady cooking with a fireless cooker box. This picture is probly from the turn of the century. 1900

This is a hay box. It is kind of self explaining. You put your pot in and cover with hay. Works like my basket with blankets.

Here is something like what I did. But with a smaller basket.

Retained heat cooking is used over in third world countrys because it doesn't use a much fuel to cook something. Here are some ladys in Africa.

Here is one made of a crock and some stock pots in two sizes and some foam insulation in between the two pots.

Another basket but this time filled with news papers. It still works. There are so many way to do it. Pick one that works best for you.

I saw this one being sold on the internet somewhere. Not sure where.

Well I hope you all enjoyed this post God bless

Kelly

Mornings

2011-01-05T12:28:00.001-08:00

I love winter mornings. Getting up before the sun. Getting my husband off to work. Putting on the kettle for a nice warming pot of English black tea. While I watch the early morning sun coming up, it starts shining through the windows a soft and glowing light. It gives me a content feeling about my life. Warm tea and sunny mornings will do that to me. After some tea and breakfast I go and get dressed to head out to the barn to feed breakfast to my goats and chickens. Then back in, to start my day of working around the house. And when that is all done I snuggle up on the couch to read homesteading books, mags, and go through seed catalogs. Then it's time to get dinner started. I might love winter mornings but I'm always dreaming of spring days.

Here is a picture of my sunny kitchen in the morning. You can see my living room in the background.

Here is my dinning room it flows into my kitchen. My brother Zane made that table all by hand, it is fashioned after a 1740's table style. The table has no nails in it. It is put together with just wooden pegs, and the legs are hand turned on a lathe. It is one of my most prized possession

This one of my favorite flat back cupboards, my parents gave it to me along time ago. I love the coloring of it, a beautiful red and brown mixed together

These are my favorite things in my whole house. I love cookbooks!!!!! Oh heck I love all kinds of books, but one of my favorite kind of books are my cookbooks. This is just two out of three of my full shelf of cookbooks. The third shelf has my antique cookbooks on it. They range from the years 1844 clear through to 1945.

Just a few pictures of some of my favorite things in my house. This amazing grace plague is hand embroidered. I fell in love with it the day I saw it at a craft show. The tea pot is from next door, it was a restaurant back in the 40's clear through until about 3 years ago, when it closed down. They had a yard sale, and that is where I got it and a griswall cast iron size 14 frying pan. The blue bottle is a 1860's purfume bottle that my brother Craig dug up out of a old privy and gave to me. It is hand blown bubble glass.

This is a really old shelf that a old friend gave me a while back. It hold some of my other favorite things. I really love tea pots this is just of few of them. Each one holds a memory for me. I won't go into each one, but I will tell you about the tea cup on the bottom shelf on the right. the dark blue and white with a little yellow. This is really called a tea bowl. Because it has no handle. This tea bowl is from the late 1700's or early 1800's. I'm not quite sure of the exact date. My brother Zane gave this one to me.

Well this is the end of my pictures. I hope you all enjoyed your walk thru my day and of some of my favorite things. God bless

Kelly

A New Year and A New Blog

2011-01-04T04:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Well a new year is here. And I'm ashamed to say that I let my blog go way to long without posting. I could make up excuses, by saying that things got to busy around here, but I won't. Because I know things get busy for you guys too, and you all don't quit posting on your blogs. So I have decided to start all over again and try to keep it up a lot better. In honor of the new year I will start over like a new blog, all fresh. And I plan to keep this one going strong. I think I will try to change the look and the way I blog too. Bring you along in my day not just post little tid bits of my life, and lots of better pictures. I love blogs with nice pictures of their daily life.
Well I guess I should catch you all up on everything that has gone on around here. First off Megan and Levi are expecting a baby. Yes that is right, I'm going to be a GRANDMA!! I'm very excited. She is due around April 9Th. Megan is seeing a midwife and plans to have the baby at home. I was a little nervous about it at first, but I have meet the midwife and have come to trust her. She really knows her stuff. Megs starts her 3 trimester sometime this week, and I have seen and felt the baby moving. It is a wondrous thing. God is so good!!! Levi and Megan have also rented a house of their own.They rented it in Oct. It is such a sweet little house. Just perfect for them. It even has a small room, Just big enough for the baby's room

Levi and Megan on their couch in their newly rented house.

Now for what is new on the homestead. The garden did OK this year, but the weeds were so bad that they kind of took over, The summer was so busy that a lot of the produce I'm ashamed to say went bad before it got harvested. I felt really bad about it. I will not let it happen again. One of the reason I think I let it go so badly was, my mind was on my dear sweet sister-in-law who was dieing and did die of breast cancer. Her name was Darla Campbell, my brother Zane's wife, he loved her so much. She was only 44 years old. The same age as me. She was at her worst in July and Aug, and then she died Sept 5. I will miss her deeply. I don't want to blame everything that went bad with the garden on her. I could have tried harder and got things done, but my heart wasn't in it. But next year I will have a wonderful harvest and I will do it in honor of her.

The chicken tractor worked wonderfully. I have so many ideas on how to use it this summer. And I have some big changes coming to the homestead, I will fill you all in on them very soon. Some of them might even surprise you. The chickens are all doing well and laying like crazy. I keep a light on in the coop, it's on a timer. It makes a world of a difference in how they lay in the winter. I'm getting about 13-15 eggs a day out of 18 hens, and 13 of them are my young hens and 5 are last years hens. I'm pretty happy with that average.

There was one thing in the garden that did go very well, saving seeds. It was the first time I have ever save seeds. I saved peas, a dry bean called butterscotch, radishes called French Breakfast, purple bush snap beans called Royal Burgundy. That is the start of something that I have been wanting to try for a long time. Next year I plan on saving my tomato seed and a few other. I can't wait to try it again this year coming.
The goat girls are doing well. They are both dry. I had planned on getting Mango freshened next. But it's always getting side tracked. I love my goat girls, but I think we might have to get rid of them by spring. It is only me doing the day to day things around here, and things are getting a little over whelming for me. My husband helps when he can but he is a very busy man. I think that little of my problem last year with the garden was also the goats and milking and taking care of the milk was slowing me down in the garden. So I have decided to make a few change around here and the goats going was one of them. It is really going to break my heart. But it needs to be done. Well that is about it with what is new, I'm sure that I'm forgetting something and I remember after I post this, but that is OK. God bless

Kelly

My husband he is so good to me

2010-06-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

My husband is so good to me!!! He made me my very own milking stand and a chicken tractor. With out me even asking for them. Let me start off by saying that my husband is not a homesteader at heart, like me. Half the things that I have wanted to do and have done here, my husband has thought I was crazy for even thinking about. He just didn't see the need for all of the things I do. If you want eggs, and milk, well then you just go buy it at the store, if you want veggies, you can buy them at the store too, and so on and so on. Well over the years he has started thinking I'm not so crazy. He now says that he never wants to eat a store bought egg ever again, and he brags on our garden to his buddys. He thinks my home raised meat chickens are the best tasting chickens that he has ever eaten. And I even got him to admit that the goats milk isn't as bad as he thought it would be. But he has never loved the life like me. So when ever there is something I need made or done here I try to do it myself or be very patient until he has the time to do it for me. Well On mothers day this year he went out of his way to surprise me by welding me together a milking stand and then a few weeks later made me a chicken tractor. All I can say is I'm so blessed to have him as a husband. below are a few pictures of my milking stand and my new chicken tractor.

Here is my milking stand. I had been needing a milking stand for a while now. The breeder who I got my goats from had loaned me hers just for the winter, and it had needed to go back a couple of months ago. I felt really bad about keeping it so long.
I need to tell you the whole story behind this stand. On Mothers Day my husband had said that he needed to run into the shop at work to do a few things. Well knowing him I never thought twice about it. And on his way out the door he had gone down into our basement and carried out a old bed frame that had been down there forever. Knowing my husband I still never thought much of it. So after a couple of hours of him being gone, he calls me and say he will be needing my to come into the work's shop and give him my opinion on something. So I knew something was going on then. When I got there he told me Happy Mother Day and showed me the best looking milking stand that I had ever dreamed of . I never thought I could afford a metal milking stand. My husband is so talented. He had taken that bed frame and cut it up and added some scrap metal and a piece of wood that they had laying around at work and turned it into a really cool milking stand, that cost us nothing. I had forgot to say that when I was not looking he had taken a few measurements of the other milking stand before he had left to go make it. So he could have a idea of what to do.

This is just the front view of the stand.

Here is my chicken tractor. It is made out of 3 stock panels, some chicken wire, and some 4x4 boards. That is just a few of the main things it took to make it. I think it cost around $100 for everything. Last year I was talking about wanting one of these. My husband had never even heard of one until then. I had explained what it was, and what it was made out of. Then this year he said he wanted to make me one for the meat chickens that we raise every spring - summer. I was kind of shocked because I hadn't talked about it since last year. He is to good to me. Some ladys want a new purse and some want jewelry, not me buy me a homesteading book, make something for my homestead I'm a happy girl.

Here is another view of the tractor. That is my house and garden in the background.

Missy has kicked the bucket.

2010-05-28T12:26:00.000-07:00

I'm sad to report that my goat Missy has kicked the bucket:o( And if she does it again there will be no more goat treats for her haha. Just kidding about her kicking the bucket. I wanted to write another post about my Missy dear, and update you all as to what has happened to her since I last posted that I was going to find her a new home. Well she is still here on the homestead. I didn't get rid of her like I said I was. I just felt in my hart that I couldn't give up on her, and it turns out that she is going to work out after all. It took a lot of patient, work and good bit of time. I'm so happy, I never wanted to gave up on her. She gives me such rich and cream filled milk. I can let a jar of her milk sit in the refrigerator for couple of days and I will have about a inch of cream at the top. I can make butter and really rich cheeses without a cream separator. The homestead is coming together really well now. My husband made me a chicken tractor. The garden is almost all in and I think with in this week everything should be in. Well I should be going to bed now, good night all.

Kelly

Wedding

2010-05-26T20:03:00.001-07:00

My daughter got married this past Monday. I thought I would share a few pictures of them. The first one is one I found in one of my daughter's folders. I hope she don't care if I share it with you all. It was too beautiful not to.

A Visit

2010-04-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post of some pictures of my daughter and her fiance. He is staying with us for a little while. He has moved here from Virginia about a month ago now. I have been meaning to write this post up for about as long. But things are really busy around here lately. He has found a job and settling in very nicely. For the first few week we had took him on a tour of the Valley here. So here are a few pictures of my daughter and him, and our visiting around. Hope you enjoy them.

here is Megan and Levi at a cemetery down in Martins Ferry Ohio. This cemetery is call Walnut Grove. My 6Th Great Grandfather and mother are buried her. Their names were Ebenezer and Elisabeth Zane. Ebenezer is the founder of Wheeling WV. He came to Wheeling in the year 1770. We wanted to show him alittle about our history.

Here is just a picture of the old stones in the cemetery. I don't know why I love old cemeterys. I think that they are very peaceful, and the headstones are interesting to read too.

Here is a Marker that tell all about the history of the area and the cemetery.

And here is the other side of the marker.

Here is a head stone of a young lady who died young. I liked that poem that they put on the stone.

Here is the poem that was on the stone. click on it and you might be able to read it too.

This is my 6Th Great Grandma. She died in 1814. I love what they wrote on her stone. Elizabeth Zane who died in January 1814 in the 66Th year of her age. Her life was spent in the constant exercise of domestic and christian virtue. I love that.

Here is a picture of Wheeling's Center Market. It was given to the city by my family along long long long time ago. Inside are restaurants and stores. And the two roads running along both sides of it are full of used book stores and antique shoppes. Great place to visit.

Here is a picture of the inside of one of the antique shops. I found and bought a really old cast iron pot in this store. I only payed $12 for it. It's from the 1860's or maybe even alittle earlier. I was a happy camper that day.

Then we headed to Cabela's. It is very neat inside.

This is Oglebay Mansion. We went there next. We didn't get a chance to go in, but we will be back some other time.

Here is Megs and Levi in the gardens at Oglebay park in Wheeling. It is so beautiful there.

Here are some of the flower that where blooming while we where there. I didn't know tulips came in purple.

Here is Megan in front of the fountain up at Oglebay by the mansion.

This picture is not of our trip, but of Megs walking on our back road across the street from us. I just really liked it. With the rolling hills in the background. God bless

Kelly

Weekend Goat Workshop On A Earthship

2010-04-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of Sundays ago I went to a goat workshop at Ohio's first Earthship. The place is called Blue Rock Station. It is about 2 hours away from me. A earthship is a house that is made out of old tires, recycled trash, and is half way covered by the earth. Collects it's own water from it's roof and saves it in a cistern. The only windows that it has all face south to collect the sun's rays to warm the house in the winter, and the window are angled in such a way the it blocks a lot of the sun's rays in the summer to help keep it cool. It is a very self sufficient house. Well they were having a goat workshop on using herbs and natural thing to help keep your goat healthy. The workshop also showed how to make some types of cheese. It was a very interesting workshop I learned a few new things about taking care of a goat. I took lots of pictures so I will give you all a tour of the place.

This is the owner Annie, with her goat Tudy. The goat is a French Alpine breed.

This is a picture of the goat barn, where we did the first half of the workshop. I learned a lot about what helps keeps a goat healthy. I really enjoyed this part of the day. After we were done in the barn Annie's husband gave us a quick tour of the property, so that Annie could go down to there house and get the second part of our workshop ready for us.

As you can see it was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining and the red buds and other trees were blooming. They raise lamas, goats and chickens on the little homestead.

This is their pop bottle greenhouse. When they do a project on the property they always try to use recycled thing to build them. They also had a solar heated shower, and a composting toilet.

This is their chicken chalet (chicken coop). It is made out of all straw bale construction, and designed to collect all the water that the chickens may need. See the rain barrels on the side of the building.

This is the front of the earthship. Inside those doors was where we had our cheese making class. All the doors except for the two front darker colored doors where put in as windows, and they were recycled from houses that were being remodeled. It is made of a straw bale and tire earthen wall construction. The small holes and one large hole above the door was actually made of colored glass bottles. And from the inside it made a beautiful stain glass kind of thing. You will see what I'm talking about a little bit later, because I have put up a picture a little bit lower in the post taken from the inside of that room. I'm almost sure that everything that they used in building this house was recycled or given to them.

This is also in the front of the house. See how the window are angled to catch the winter's sunlight, and angled in such away to keep out most of the summer's sunlight. At the very end of the building is a solar water heater.

Here is Annie again. She is showing how to put the cheese curds in a press. Before we had our cheese classes we were invited to partake of some English tea and cookies, and to try some goats cheeses the she had made ahead of time.

This is that picture that I had talked about earlier in this post. See how it looks like a stain glass window in a way. The straw bale walls are covered in a stucco made out of mud, straw, and sand.

This picture was taken a little farther into their house. The main part of their house was very open. the kitchen and the main living room are connected together. See how the sun comes in and lights up the whole room. See how the ceiling is slanted in a V shape. That is so the rain water will collect at the bottom of the V and run into their cistern. That wall behind the ladies talking was made out of old tires pack full with clay soil, then stuccoed over.

This is Annie and I. In her living area. That wood burning stove is the only thing that heat their whole house. The wall behind us is another wall that is made out of tires and stuccoed over. I had a very good day of visiting and learning. I will be inviting Annie to come to my house sometime this June for a 18Th century tea party in my garden. Well hope you all enjoyed the post

Kelly

Cooking over a fire, and other things

2010-03-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

I love cooking over a open fire, and the weather around here last week had been so beautiful that I decided to cook a beef roast over a fire, and make a Roast and Rubs. The roast cooked over the fire while I worked on cleaning the chicken coop. I learned to love cooking over a fire when I first started reenacting the 17oo's about 10 years ago. When you go to a reenactment, ( reenacting battles from a certain time period.) the people who attend don't just dress up from that time we also do everything that they did from that time. That includes cooking like them, sleeping in tents just like them, and depicting everything about their lives.

You may ask what is a roast and rubs. Well let me tell you. This recipe has been in my family for over 200 years. My great grandmother on my mother's side of the family was Pennsylvania Dutch or German in origin. She passed it down to my mother. It is a roast that has been kept covered in water, and boiled slowly with a sliced in half onion and maybe a few boullion cubes for about 3-4 hours until it is falling apart done. Then you take the beef out of the broth, and set it aside. Then you make the rubs. The dish is actually called rivel in Pennsylvania Dutch. Rivel is rub in that language. Because when you are making them you rub the dough through your hands and fingers to form crumbles. Rubs are actually just crumbled fresh noodles in beef broth. I will add the recipe to this post.

Roast and Rubs:
After you have cook the roast, like I wrote how above. Take the roast out of the broth and cover and set aside. Now you make your Rubs:
Flour
Salt and pepper
4-5 eggs
Take 2 cups of flour and put in a large bowl. Make a bowl in the flour to put the eggs. Beat the eggs with a fork. Salt and pepper the flour. Start mixing it. It will be sticky still, so add more flour until it feels dry and crumbly. Start pulling it apart with your fingers, until all you have left is crumbs the size of anywhere from a pea to a nickle. Heat the broth from the roast to a boil, then start adding the rubs, a little at a time, to the broth while continuously stirring. Make sure the rubs are not clumping together. Cook the rubs for about 6 minutes. Make sure it makes a nice medium-thick gravy, if it is not thick enough then add a thickener (flour and water) to it, just as you would for gravy. When they are done, make mashed potatoes.
Serve rubs over mashed potatoes as you would gravy.

This is my daughter Megan and her fiance Levi.

A lot of things have happening around here lately. We are some how still milking Missy out every night. Don't ask me how, but we are. We are having so so much fun making cheeses and yogurt with her milk.

My daughter had been looking for a treadle sewing machine. We found one in a local trader paper for $50. I couldn't believe it. It was in perfect condition. It is a Singer model 66 ("Red Eye") made in 1922 and all it needed was some cleaning and a new treadle belt. My daughter is engaged to a very nice young man named Levi. When they marry they plan to live simple lives on a farm without any electricity. So the sewing machine is kind of for her hope chest, or wedding chest, that is what we like to call it now. I posted a couple pictures of the machine below.

Then on this past Monday My Mom, My daughter Megan, and I all went to Lehman's up in Kidron, Ohio. I love love that store, it's so big. I could spend all day in that store. It is about 1 1/2 hours away from where I live. I needed to run up there and pickup some rennet, so I could make some cheese. But instead of just coming home with the rennet and a new homesteading book(I love their huge selection of books). I ended up with a new grain mill and some rennet. I bought it for less than half off. So instead of paying $160 I only payed $75. I couldn't pass that deal up. So in the end I only had enough money for the mill and the rennet. But that was OK with me. I had been wanting a grain mill for a long time, but never wanted to spend that kind of money for it. After that we headed down to Mount Eaton in Holmes county. To eat at a really good restraint call Mrs Yoder's. And then to a sewing machine shop to pick up a few thing for Meg's new sewing machine. From there we just headed on home. That was a fun but long day.

My daughter and I went to visit my brother Zane the other day, it was his birthday. So I stopped by to see him and give him his present a day early because he had plans for lunch with his wife for his birthday and then after he had to go to work. While we where there, he gave me a couple boxes of antique blue canning jars that he had got out of a really old house. I'm thinking of doing some kind of give away with a couple of them, sometime soon on my site. Stay tuned to see just what kind. I think that is all that has been going on around here lately. God bless

Kelly

Missy update, I will miss you.

2010-03-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

I wanted to let you all know that we had tried something new with Missy. It had seemed to be working. We took some of your suggestions and add one more from a friend. We had been milking her just fine. We had figured out that she is a very sensitive goat, and decided to make the barn as quiet as possible, and talk to her in a soft voice. Then we raised the strap a little higher, just so she couldn't get her leg up over and out of it. I support her legs and my daughter Megan did the milking. I had been working so well that she didn't even fight us any more. Our next plan was to start lowering the strap a little lower until she was standing again. But the other day we noticed that her teets had some black marks on them that wouldn't wash off. We thought that it might be some bruising from the new way of milking. I don't know how it could be, because we had never put the strap across, or even near her udder. But we decided to stop milking her that way just in case. Now she is acting the same way again. I thought that a week or so of hand milking would bring her around, but it didn't. I can't get her milked out without fighting her, so I have decided to sell her. It's a shame because she is a wonderful mother. I hope I can find someone who is interested in a 2 generation Mini Nubian goat. She would still be a great breeder goat. She has a great bloodline. I have decided to get Mango breed at the end of March, and then I should have her milking before winter sets in this year, hopefully. I will really miss baking and cooking with Missy's milk, it had a lot of cream, so it was very sweet and good. I couldn't tell the difference from cows milk. I had never really tasted goats milk before. I was very happy and surprised to find out that it was so so really good. Well I will miss Missy, even though she was not a good milk goat for me. She did teach me a lot while she was here. I learned how to help a goat through birthing her babies. I learned how to keep my cool with a stubborn goat, and many many other things. I don't regret buying her at all. Bye Missy I will really miss you and your milk.

Kelly

I need help!!! From any Goat Person!!!!

2010-03-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

As you can see the snow has been retreating. But there is one thing on this proprerty that is not going to give in. And her name is Missy. We thought she was getting better, when it came to milking. But I was wrong. Every time we think of a new way to try and milk her she will be good for about two days and then she starts figuring a way out of it. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now. And now she has figured a way around the new thing that we thought she would never get out of . I have posted some pictures of missy and a couple videos to. If any of you that have goats have any and I mean any ideas PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!! Because I'm only giving her afew more days and we will be finding her a new home. I can't aford a goat that won't do her job and give me her milk. The thing is I don't want to get rid of her. She is a sweet goat and I love the taste of her milk. It has a lot of good cream, because she is half Nigian and half Nubian. And both breeds have high butter content in there milk. We have tryed hobbling her a few different was. We have tryed even tieing her leg to the back of the milking stand, after I had read it on someone elses blog. The leg tieing made her mad and she was trying to pull her legs out so hard I thought she was going to brake a leg or something. So needless to say we cut her loose quickly and have not done that again. We have also tryed one of use holding one of her back legs up and alittle forward, while the other one milks her. She was fine at first, but then she learned to drops straight down on her side. I don't want to hurt her. It seems we just can't win. I'm afraid there is nothing else to try. God bless
Kelly

This is my Missy Girl. Or should I say bad girl. She looks all innocent here dosn't she.

But then this what she dose next. If anyone knows what to do Please Help!!!!!!

One Long, Cold, and Snowy Winter

2010-03-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

It has been One Long Cold, and Snowy winter here in Ohio where I live. We got around 40 inches of snow, give or take a inch. But even with all that snow, winter as flew by, and it's so hard for me to believe that it is March already. A lot of things have happened here, over the winter. I guess I should get you all back up to speed on the things that have been going on around here at Lilac Cottage. Of course you already know that Missy had her bucklings back in Dec. Joel and Jonah have been sold and gone to a wonderful home over in West Virgina. Their new owner has renamed them Oky and Doky. You get it Oaky Doky.haha. Their mother is now giving us just under a 1/2 gallon of milk a day. We've been having a REALLY HARD time with her. she won't let us milk her, but I think we almost have it figured out, at least we hope so. Even though she is 5 years old, she is a first time hand milker. So she is very very upset with us trying to milk her out ever day. She sits and lay all the way down on her udders trying very hard to keep us from milking her. It's a shame because she is a very sweet goat. She greets me with a kiss ever time she see me. If any of you goat people out there have any good ideas on how to keep a goat standing while milking, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!

I have ordered my chicks for this spring. They should get here sometime around May 6Th. I ordered 16 layers, half Black Stars and half Red Stars. The Black stars have laid wonderful eggs for me this year. So I thought that I would order only Black and Red Stars this year. I have a lot of people buying eggs from me this year. So I ordered 5 more chicken than I have now, so we can have some extra eggs for us next year. I also bought 12 meat chickens. They are call Cornish Roasters. Its a breed of meat chicken that I have bought in the past. I really like how well they turn out in the end. They take a little longer to get to butchering age, but worth the wait. I will never go back to not raising my own meat chickens. I know what has been fed to them, and I know I didn't give them any hormone, antibiotics, and they have lived a good life, outside in the sunshine and fresh air. Living like a real chicken should, eating grass, and scratching around catching and eating bugs. And you can't beat the taste!!!!! I think my husband wants to build a chicken tractor this year for the meat chickens. It should help on how much feed we will need for the them. because they will be able to all the grass they want, and help save us on the feed.

I have also bought all of my seeds for this years garden. Evey year I buy them from a man at a local indoor flea market. I only pay 10 cents a pack for mostly heirloom and organic seeds. I have bought my seed from him for the last 2 years, and all of the seeds have been great. The seed are usually last years left overs, but they have always germinated for me. It saves me alot of money buying them from him.

This year I have added something new to my little homestead, It's another way of composting. You can even compost in your house. Can you guess? Well I will tell you. I bought myself some composting worms from eBay, Red Wigglers is the breed that you need for this job. They where sent in the mail from down south in Georgia. I will do a whole post on just this subject later on. I will give you all the details then. I'm very excited about it. My husband just thinks I'm nuts ha ha. I think that is about it. I plan on posting a lot more in the coming months, please come by and check in again. Before I go I have posted a couple of pictures of the ice and snow we have been getting. I have also added a poem that has been illustrated by Tasha Tudor. It is one of my favorite poem, it was written by William Wordsworth. God bless

Kelly

I wish I could have put them side by side, but I couldn't figure it out. This poem is about March in the country.

Here is a picture of a icecle hanging from the back corner of our house. My husband had to knock it down before it pulled our gutters down.

This is a picture of our stone wall in the back flower garden. I love the look of the Iron urn all tuck in a hole of snow.

2009-12-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, Things have gotten alittle crazy around here and I just haven't had a chance to add any new post yet. But I wanted to take alittle time to do that this morning. It's not going to be a long one. I had taken acouple of new videos of the boys and wanted to share them. They are geting bigger everyday, and love jumping all over me everytime I sit down. I also took acouple pictures of the snow we have gotten up here in Ohio over the last couple of days. It's not as much as we got from the last snow storm but it's a good 3-4 inches. I hope you all enjoy them. God bless

Kelly

The babies are here!!!!!

2009-12-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

My goat Missy had her kids yesterday around 5:00pm, both boys. We have been waiting for these little kids to get here for a long time now. We thought they would never get here. The breeder that I got them from thought that she was bred sometime in May but had kept her with the buck for another 2 months to make sure. I'm glad she did, because if she had been bred in May she would have had the babies back in Oct. So it must not have taken the first time. She definitely was bred sometime in July. Goats take just about 5 months to have their kids. We have named them Joel and Jonah. From the bible. I like the names they suit them. We here are some videos taken not long after their birth. Hope you like them God Bless

Kelly

A fall tour of Lilac Cottage

2009-10-31T08:39:00.000-07:00

I don't have a lot of time to do a long post like I wanted, but I'd like to post a few pictures so you all can get to know a little bit more about me and my homestead.

Here is a picture of the back of the goat barn. That is the door that let the goats out into the fenced in run. You can see off to the right that the chicken coop is attached to the goat barn, and both of their runs meet.

My daughter took this picture. It was taken from the inside the of the goat barn. She is so good at finding interesting pictures to take.

Here is my goat Mango. I really don't like that name. I'm trying to think of another one for her. She had the name when I got her a little over a month ago. The funny thing is that the only thing that keeps coming to mind is Queenie, because she is definitely the Queen of this small herd. She bosses my other goat Missy around terribly

This is Missy, which is short for Mississippi. The breeder was naming all of her goats after rivers that year. She said that she used to pick name themes every year. Missy is pregnant, I hope. I'm almost sure she is. She is just now starting to have a little bit of a baby bulge on her sides. The breeder put her in with buck on May 8Th and left him with her until the middle of July. So she could be having it anytime between now and Jan. I really hope sooner than Jan. Well we will just have to wait and see. Both of my goats are Mini Nubians. That means that they have Nigerian Dwarf and Nubian goat breeds in them. Missy is only 21 inches tall, and Mango is about 24 inches tall. Missy's mother and her grandmother have given a gallon a milk a day, which is a lot for a mini goat. I can't wait to see how much she will give me.

Here is a picture of a few of my chickens. Right now I have Black Stars, and Speckled Sussexs. The Black Stars are wonderful wonderful egg layer!!!! They were the first to lay and they lay very nice size eggs too. The Speckled Sussexes have not started laying yet. So I put a light in the coop, and I hope that will start them to laying soon. I think that they are beautiful, but if they don't start laying soon I will have to have to put them in my freezer, because I can't afford to feed them if they don't give me eggs. This is a working farm, working to put food on my table one way or another.

This is one of my favorite places on my property. It is my perennial flower garden, and I love to sit on that swing in the summer and read my garden and homesteading books. But problem is I hardly never have time to just sit and read anymore. I'm always in my veggie garden planting, weeding, or up in the barn taking care of my animals. When I usually get time to read is in the winter when everything but the animals are done. Well that is the end of my tour. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Kelly

Fall has come to Lilac Cottage.

2009-10-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

This is our large silver maple behind the house. She is in her full glory this year. Most years it dose not turn such beautiful colors, but this year it has out did it's self. In front of the tree you can see my rod iron tripod that I use for cooking over a fire with. I used to do 18Th century reenacting. So I picked up this tripod at one of those events. I really really LOVE fall. It is one of my favorite seasons. My other favorite season is spring. This is just a quick posts for now. I plan on doing a much better one in the next day or so. Hope you all enjoy the picture. God bless

Kelly
I just wanted to add this cute fall poem by Emily Dickinson. I took it from a book that Tasha Tudor put together and illustrated . It has all of her favorite poems in it. It is call Wings from the Wind An Anthology of Poems Selected and Illustrated by Tasha Tudor.

Hello

2009-09-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, I have had this site for a little while now and its about time I do a post on it. Well let me introduce myself. My name is Kelly. I live on about one acre of land, which doesn't sound like a lot. But it's more than enough for me and my family to raise chicken, goats, and put in a really nice size garden. My husband's name is Wayne, and my daughter's name is Megan. We call our little place Lilac Cottage Farm. We have two walls of lilacs on our property, and our house is small like a cottage. So I thought that would be a appropriate name. I love living in the country. Raising my own food. We don't raise or grow all of our food but every year I try to add something else to the list of thing that we do, either in the garden or by way of animal raising

I love raising goats. They are such sweet animals. We have 3 at the moment, but are planing on going down to 2. I have Mini Nubians. They are a cross between a Nigerian Dwarf, and a full size Nubian goat. They are small like a Nigerian Dwarf, but look like a Nubian with their floppy ears and sometimes even have their roman nose. They also can give me almost as much milk as a full size Nubian can, but still eats less than the full size goats dose and doesn't need as much room as a large goat either. With us living on just one acre That is a good thing. We are about to have our first goat kidding on our property. That means one of our goats is about due to have babies. I'm very excited. Baby goats are very cute, and I'm looking forward to using her extra milk to drink and make cheese, ice cream, fudge, and soap. The Goat that is going to have the baby is called Missy. She is about 21 inches tall at the withers. She has a very good milk blood line, which means that her mother and her grandmother on her dads side were wonderful milkers. They were known to give about a gallon a milk a day. Which is really good for a mini. I will post lots of pictures when the babies get here. It could be any day now.

We also raise chickens. I usually order baby peep in mid spring. We like to buy about 10 to 12 laying hens chicks and about 10 to 12 meat chicken chicks. I would never go back to not raising my own laying hens. The eggs taste 10 time better then store bought eggs. There is no comparison. They are much better for you also. Lower in cholesterol and higher in vitamins and minerals. I know some people might not agree with me, but I also like raising my own meat chickens. There is a much better taste to them, then store bought. I feed my chickens unmedicated feed, grass clippings, weeds, and all the over grown veggies from the garden. It's wonderful knowing exactly what I'm putting in my body. I also like knowing that the meat chicken I raise have a good life while they are here on my property. They get to be out in the sunshine and scratch around like a real chicken dose. In stead of being crammed into a big metal building never getting fresh air and never seeing daylight. And that's not even talking about all the filth that they live in.

This year coming will make my 6Th year that we have had a garden. Each year it gets bigger and bigger. I think it is about 70 by 70 feet garden now. I still consider myself to be a novalest when it comes to gardening, but I try very hard to get better at it every year. Here are some of the things I like to put in my garden.

Tomatos, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, potataos, cucumbers, onions, garlic, peas, beets, sweet potatoes, green beans, kindney beans, sun flowers, letteus, summer squash,
I'm sure I have missed something. Well I think that is enough for now. I hope you enjoy a look in to my life.

Kelly