They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
Recently we bought Seppi a new book called "Everyday Woodworking" by Youtube woodworker Rex Krueger. This is because he has been showing more and more interest in building stuff with wood. For example, last week when we got to the farm and started school, Daddy was too busy to help Seppi with his schoolwork for… Continue reading Tool Tote
What do you do when life hands you 100 gallons of cider? You make hard cider, of course. When I told the kids I was making hard cider they asked how you harden cider. So the process is now known as "hardening." The first step is cleaning and sterilizing our equipment. If we have learned… Continue reading Hardening the Cider
Lots of people (myself included) watch homesteaders on Youtube, and that show about early Victorian farms, and read John Seymour's "Self-Sufficient Life" and get all fired up about living the more simple life. Some even buy or rent or borrow some land and make a start at homesteading. But there is a dark side of… Continue reading Subdividing the South Pasture: First two Fence Anchors
Here in the good ol' Pacific Northwest, getting ready for winter is more about getting things ready for rain than it is prepping for snow or ice. This means cleaning out the gutters (before and after the leaves fall). We had gutter guards, but found that we grew too much moss under them and the… Continue reading Winter is Coming
Dun Dun Duunnnnn!!!! You have to clean up from it. That's what we have been up to, mostly, since last Saturday. Or, actually, Saturday before that. Time flies! All the tubs and bins and pots and pans had to be washed and dried. Anything small enough went through the dishwasher, but some of it had… Continue reading The Dark Side of Cider Fest…
When you need to go out and feed the animals, but you don’t feel like walking, and you are wearing your Rapunzel costume on top of your Cinderella costume with a side of little house on the Prairie.
Monday was a bit of an off day. Mommy and Daddy both had to work, but Auntie Mate was here to shepherd the kids through school. They did a great job being good for her. On Tuesday, we tried to get the house back into the normal swing of things, and to push ahead on… Continue reading Elderberry Elixir
Well folks, as expected, last Saturday was Crazy! We had more than twenty families come over, from Church, homeschool, work, 4H and neighbors. We processed more than a ton of apples into who knows how much cider! We canned 100+ gallons the day of, and parceled out another 20-ish gallons for people to can at… Continue reading Cider Fest 2025!
The last weekend before Cider Fest, Mommy and Daddy and Winnie drove down to Chehalis to buy a new cider press. It was in very decent shape for being over a hundred years old, and it was a fun outing. Unfortunately, when trying to replace the guide on the spout end of the tray, it… Continue reading Refurbishing the Cider Press.
Cider fest is tomorrow! It's coming fast. Daddy had the day off work, so he was able to help Mommy out at CC (our homeschool co-op) in the first half of the morning. In the second half he got all the rest of the firewood split and stacked out of the way. The new 8… Continue reading Final Preparation for Cider Fest
